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THE HUMAN FACTOR 
IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 



THE HUMAI^ FACTOR 



IN 



WORKS MAl^AGEMEI^T 



BY 
JAMES HARTNESS, M.E. 

MEMBER AMERICAN SOCIETY MECHANICAL ENGINEERS 

INSTITUTION OP MECHANICAL ENGINEERS 

FELLOW AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 

ADVANCEMENT OF 

SCIENCE, ETC. 



McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY 

239 WEST 39TH STREET, NEW YORK 

6 BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON, E.G. 

1912 



Copyright, 1912, by James Hartness 



k'^'' 

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THB-PLIMPTON'PRESS'NOBWOOD-MASS'U-S-A 



gC!.A316623 



FOREWORD 

This book is an attempt to set forth some of 
the most essential principles of industrial 
economics. Special emphasis is laid on the 
proper use of the human being, especially as 
regards modes of emplojonent of mind and 
body. 

Particular attention is given to those modes 
of use that are the most favorable to the com- 
fort and success, not only of the man in the 
office or works, but to the success of the organ- 
ization, or industry, or nation. Emphasis is 
also given to the value of habit, both as a pres- 
ent means and as one by which progress can 
most easily be made. 

In reaching the conclusion of any book 
touching subjects so varied as this, there is 
a feeling of the incompleteness of the treat- 
ment. 

This must always be so. 

We can do no more than contribute our mite, 



vi FOREWORD 

and it is better to make our contribution now 
than to wait till a larger sum is in hand. 

There may seem to be a lamentable lack of 
direct examples which might illustrate the 
application of the theory, doctrine, or law 
set forth; but since such examples will readily 
come to mind to any one who has caught the 
spirit of the book, this lack may not be really 
objectionable. 

The main purpose has been to build up a 
standard of measure by which all ideas for 
management may be measured: one that will 
measure an ordinary suggestion for change 
that may come up diu*ing the day, or one 
that serves equally well in determining the 
real character of some of the greater poli- 
cies or systems of management. In other 
words, the purpose has been to contribute 
more to a true mental poise of mind than to 
add one jot or tittle to the excellent schemes 
of management that may be set forth in other 
works. 



CONTENTS 



Foreword 



PART I 
CHAPTER I 

The Value of Habit 3 

Success Depends More on the Man than the 
Plan — Systems are a MeanSj not the End Sought 

— Progress from Invention — Selling the Product 

— Habit — New Habits Can be EstabHshed — 
Organization Eflaciency — Objections to SpeciaUza- 
tion — Value of Habit in the Industries — Fol- 
lowing the Habit Grooves — Human Inertia — 
Human WeKare and Industrial Success — Building 
on Habit — Unfavorable Conditions Must be 
Changed — Different Kinds of Men — Fitting the 
Pegs to the Holes — Specialization — Misuse of 
Energy when Specialization is not Practised — 
Mind and Body must both be Considered — Dissi- 
pation of Energies. 

CHAPTER II 

The Inertia of Habit 43 

Giving Inertia Its Proper Value — Building on 
Old Ideas and Habits — Control of Progressive 
Energy — Considering the Individual — A Tired 
Body Dulls the Brain — Division of Work — 
Working in Strange Surroundings, 
[vii] 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER III 

The Different Views of Industrial Organization 58 
The Manager's View — The Value of a Market 
— Improvements often Bring Trouble — Progress 
must Continue — Capacity for New Ideas — 
Money not the Only Dividend. 



CHAPTER IV 

Increasing the Assimilating Capacity .... 70 
Selection of Equipment — Labor Cost not the 
Only Consideration — Output per Dollar Invested 
— Fundamental Principles. 



PART II 

CHAPTER V 

Some Non-Technical Phases of Machine Design 81 
Natural Fitness — Repeated Thinking — Con- 
centrating Attention — Interest must be Awak- 
ened, not Forced — EstabUshing Useful Ruts — 
Problems to Consider — ^ Designing by the Square 
Foot — Invention should not Mix with Detail — 
The Hero of the Evaser — The Toughened IdeaHst 

— Conforming to Economic Conditions — Get- 
ting Back to Nature — Technical View Insufficient 

— Easiest Way to Improve — Avoid Obscure Parts 

— Getting Out of the Rut ~ The True Value of a 
Business — Physical Condition of Worker — All 
Men are Human Beings — ControlUng the Mind 

— Cooperation Necessary for Success. 



CONTENTS ix 

PART III 

CHAPTER VI 

Machine Building for Profit 119 

Good Results with Moderate Effort — Unim- 
portant Details — Seeing One Thing at a Time — 
The Spell of Environment — Financial Hazard — 
Conditions that Effect the Hazard — Value of Spe- 
cialization — Ambition Mania — Lack of Confi- 
dence in Product — Confidence in Existing Things 
— The Workers Help Bring Success — Progress 
with Full Knowledge of Facts — Largest Profit 
per Dollar Invested — Cost of the Product — 
Tying up Capital in Stock in Process of Con- 
struction. 



PART I 
THE VALUE OF HABIT 



THE HUMAN FACTOR IN 
WORKS MANAGEMENT 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 

rjlHE value of habit is understood when we 
-*■ realize that it is the way by which man 
thinks and acts most efficiently. 

This kind of habit is usually designated as 
the usual custom, mode, or practice. It is 
the product of repetition of either a mental 
process or an act, or both. There may be 
either a complete or partial independence or 
interaction of the mind and body in the acqui- 
sition of habit. 

The ideal and most progressive process of 
habit-building starts from a mental stimulus.^^ 
But a very efficient habit condition may be 
established by mere repetition such as is fre- 
quently enforced by environment in the busi- 
ness or manufacturing world. Under such 
conditions even a certain kind of mental 
habit may be built up by routine clerical 



4 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

work in which the man has Httle or no 
interest. 

These conditions do not awaken that inter- 
ested attention that is so essential to the higher 
type of mental processes, but they actually 
form a very efficient habit, and it operates 
without serious hindrance to the wandering 
of the thoughts to other subjects. 

As a classical example of this kind of func- 
tioning of mind and body we may cite Thomas 
Edison's account, in his biography, of the 
telegraphers at Nashville receiving their first 
intimation of the assassination of President 
Lincoln from the cries of the newsboys in the 
street, notwithstanding that the message had 
been transmitted to the local paper through 
that office. 

The whole subject is not exhaustively 
treated, only a Hne of thought being presented 
with the hope that this principle of the force 
of habit and its real economic value may be 
given a more careful consideration in all plans 
for betterment, progress, and profit. 

For it may be the missing link that seems to be 
needed to connect some of the present systems 
of management to the industrial world as it is. 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 5 

Subdivision of Work or Specialization 

The whole treatment is in harmony with 
this idea, and to this end it emphasizes the im- 
portance of speciahzation. It is hoped too that 
it clearly demonstrates that economic success 
is dependent on the most complete subdivision 
of work and the greatest number of repe- 
titions of thought and action by each individ- 
ual up to the extent of his mental and bodily 
comfort. The extent of comfortable repeti- 
tion varies greatly in different people. It is 
at its lowest ebb in the Jack of all trades and 
in the restless, rapid thinker. Its highest 
development is found in nearly all who have 
contributed notably to the progress of the 
world. It may be strengthened or lessened 
by popular opinion or by environment, but 
it is finally the gauge to which the number of 
repetitions should go. 
\ Repetition forms habit and is absolutely 
necessary for success in this world today. 
It will be even more so in the future, for a 
shiftless wandering of the mind or body should 
never be tolerated. While repetition work has 
been condemned by many, it is not in itself 



6 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

W degrading. On the contrary, it is the best 
means for developing concentration. 

This in the business man, inventor, or works 
manager, calls for continuity of thought along 
a given line. It will not tolerate a wandering 
mind, no matter how strenuous it may be, 
working by the desultory process. It says 
that men shall not be mental tramps, but 
that they shall keep their thoughts on their 
home work. In the factory it demands that 
every man's mind and body should have the 
most efficient use. 

The most complete subdivision of work 
must be made, to the end that each division 
may be readily understood, and that in this 
division and classification of tasks there may 
be a place for every man, and that every man 
should be in his own place. 

Repetition Need not be Degrading 

This is not a doctrine that degrades. It is 
one that simplifies the processes within the 
reach of the greatest number, and by repeti- 
tion of operations each man may easily become 
most efficient at his particular work. And 
last but not least, it clearly demonstrates 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 7 

the inexorable law of the ultimate supremacy 
of the largest organization in a given industry, 
and in turn of the commercial or industrial 
supremacy of a state or nation that favors 
and fosters such organizations. It is not 
necessary for it to have special trade relations. 
It is only necessary for it to carry to the most 
complete subdivision of all of the various 
mental and physical tasks, so as to get the 
great results that accrue from repetition of 
processes. 

There is a way under some conditions of 
work to get this advantage of repetition of 
processes in comparatively small organizations. 
But whether the organization is small or large, 
the economic advantages go to the one in 
which each operation has the most favorable 
number of repetitions by the individual. 

Mere size of an organization, then, does not 
give it strength. A large organization may be 
very weak if each officer and workman is 
required to know about and perform a great 
variety of operations. But such dissipation is 
fast passing out of practice. The large organ- 
izations are specializing, and in so far as they 
do this they will succeed. 



8 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

Under the heading of '^Some Non-Technical 
Phases of Machine Design '' will be found an 
effort to show the most efficient uses of an 
inventor's or designer's energies, by indicating 
what should be considered as essentials in 
machine design, and how an inventor should 
work. Although this title implies an appli- 
cation to a restricted field of industry, it is of 
far wider application, the concrete examples 
only furnishing a means of illustration. 

It is given in its original form as a lecture 
dehvered before the Stevens Engineering Soci- 
ety, composed of students of the Stevens 
Institute of Technology. It is hoped that it 
will be of value not only to the machine designer 
and inventor, but to those who have to direct 
or cooperate with them. 

Success Depends More on the Man 

THAN ^ THE PlAN 

In the industrial world we are confronted 
by the instability of things. There is a fluc- 
tuation in the fortune of each industry, each 
organization and, unfortunately, of each mor- 
tal. We know of no plan that can infallibly 
control either the ebb or flow of fortune. 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 9 

There are men who have been uniformly 
successful in all of the undertakings in which 
they have engaged, but whether they can give 
to others their plan or not, we know that 
they never do. It is doubtful if any complete 
scheme can be formulated, the variants and 
the combinations are so new and so numerous. 

Perhaps we should not insist on the explorer 
teUing us how he got there. His business is 
to get there. He may have taken instructions 
from some one who never did and never could 
get there, or he may have made his own plan, 
but in either case his success was doubtless 
due to the way he carried out the plan. In 
other words, his success was the outcome of 
either his own methods or his own interpre- 
tation of another^s scheme, so that there is 
no prospect of our being able to sail by rule. 
The industrial sea is not fully charted. There 
is still a need for the navigator to sail ''guess 
and lead'^ and ''luck and log." The hardest 
workers and the most strenuous thinkers seem 
to be as unfortunate as those who take life 
less seriously. 

But, while these facts are true, it is not 
unreasonable to believe that we are truly 



10 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

progressing toward a better control of the eco- 
nomic condition. For, great as has been the 
increase in intricacy of business relations and 
the complication of mechanical devices, there 
has also been a marked advance along lines of 
analysis of economic elements, with a tabu- 
lation and deduction that have brought much 
of the industrial problems within the reach of 
the ordinary mind. This advance has not 
been made any too soon. In fact, it has been 
tardy in arriving, but it is now here and it is 
now being carried forward by some of the best 
industrialists in the land. 

Systems are a Means, not the End Sought 

It must not be thought, however, that anal- 
ysis, tabulation, and simple deduction are the 
beginning and end of industrial science. They 
are only the scheme for coordinating the vari- 
ous forces. This process is so purely statisti- 
cal that it must not be mistaken for a major 
means. It is rather a minor means for coor- 
dinating the principal means. It tends to 
give a wholesome counterbalance for an over- 
visionary scheme of management, but in its 
function of coordinating all other forces, it 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 11 

must itself be subjected to whatever modi- 
fication is necessary to make it fit into and use 
the real forces. 

In trying to solve the problems we naturally 
turn to observing all kinds of organizations. 
We find that they all bear evidence of imper- 
fection. Even the most successful are sel- 
dom found to be wholly free from economic 
blemishes. 

There may be either an indifference to the 
appeals of the advocate of this or that system 
of betterment, or a tendency to follow some 
one branch of improvement with more or less 
neglect of other opportunities. The neglect 
is not due to an actual undervaluation of the 
importance of the other elements, but because 
the enthusiasm over one element robs the 
others of the force that is necessary to carry 
them forward. 

The mere mental acceptance of the true 
valuation of each of the other elements does 
not bring any real valuable help. The enthu- 
siastic push of some one mortal is necessary 
back of each scheme of betterment. 

This should be facilitated by a subdivision 
of the duties of management. The head con- 



12 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

trol, however, should try to keep a general 
view of the whole and see to it that there is a 
harmonious pull of all of these forces. 

Just now we have many who have taken 
strong interest in the ^'Scientific Management." 
This system improves the efficiency of an organ- 
ization by giving to each worker a thorough 
direction for the performance of his duties. 
Among other features it keeps an accurate 
record of the time required to perform each 
operation, and uses this as a basis to estimating 
time required to perform other similar or nearly 
similar operations. It is a methodical scheme 
of intelligent direction of work, and it depends 
for its success more on correct direction of 
operation than on the workman's natural ability 
and inclination to devise his own methods. 

This is not set forth as an accurate statement 
of the ^'Scientific Management, '^ but it is in 
brief an impression that has been gained by 
observation and study of this most valuable 
plan. The system doubtless is intended to 
include the use of every means for progress, 
but in practice it seems to lay emphasis on 
the best use of the present means, rather than 
the invention of new and wonderful machin- 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 13 

ery. ''The best use of the present means" is 
a poHcy that should be given first place in all 
schemes of industrial management. It is the 
most economically sound principle that can be 
set forth. It meets the present needs. It is not 
a barrier to progress by invention, and if in- 
telligently carried forward it need not run vio- 
lently against the force of habit of the workers. 
If the present use is not as efficient as it 
should be, the ''Scientific Management'' plan 
provides for a direction of the workers along 
other modes of use. It usually makes shght 
changes in the means, but it gains its great- 
est results by giving the workers instructions 
that help them to make more efficient use of 
their energies and the present means. The 
reason that it has not had more universal suc- 
cess is doubtless due to the inertia of habit of 
both the workers and the management, and 
it is to this phase that the present discussion 
aims to direct attention. 

Progeess from Invention 

Before taking up this phase of the question, 
let us briefly glance at some of the other forces 
which we must consider. 



14 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

One of the other forces that makes for the 
more efficient use of capital and labor is that 
which aims to improve the means. 

This is strongly contended for by the in- 
ventor, and when it is considered wholly by itself 
it is one of the most fascinating of all schemes. 
It seems from the inventor's and promoter's 
standpoint to be the only royal road to suc- 
cess for it does not depend on increasing the 
physical effort of the man. 

Surely we know that it has a host of advo- 
cates. Nearly every industriahst is ready to 
use a new invention that is offered for the pur- 
pose of reducing cost of production or increas- 
ing the quality of output. So fascinating is 
this phase that it has led more than one 
over-enterprising management to misfortune. 

We know that it is a force that has been most 

potent in progress, and in some respects must 

still be given a most careful consideration in 

connection with any plan of management, but 

yet it is not the only one of the elements to 

be considered. 

Selling the Product 

Among other schemes for industrial success 
may be included all that affect the sale or 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 15 

demand for the product of the plant. An 
enthusiastic commercial spirit is by some 
considered a most vital element. From the 
commercial standpoint the market require- 
ments and demands must be met. These are 
so important and so complicated that it is 
difficult for one whose mind is filled with them 
to clearly see the economic conditions of the 
manufacturing side of the business. 

For instance, the great need of ultra-special- 
ization does not seem apparent, and sometimes 
the force of inertia of habit in the works is 
underrated. The problems of business-getting 
are so involved that there is no chance to 
clearly see the importance of the purely man- 
ufacturing need. 

The many other forces that affect the suc- 
cess will readily come to mind, although they 
will differ shghtly in the various organizations 
and industries. 

Onte more force is the momentum of prac- 
tice, or inertia of habit or custom, or just 
plain '^ habit." And this is to be the central 
theme of this discussion. All of the forces 
must be considered, and the policy adopted 
must be a rational coordination of them all, 



16 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

but they seem to focus on the force of habit, 
which is too often overlooked. 

Habit 

The sense in which the word '^habif is used 
in the present discussion means the condition 
of body or mind, or both, which has been 
estabhshed by repetition of an act or mental 
process, or both. It may be strengthened or 
weakened by persistent purpose, but never- 
theless mostly depends for its strength on the 
frequency and number of repetitions. 

Its importance in the industrial world is 
that it is the condition of mind and body by 
which a man acts with greatest precision, ease, 
comfort, and efficiency. It is a condition that 
must not be carelessly disturbed, for there 
is found to be a deep-rooted antipathy to 
abrupt change. 

Skill, dexterity, facility in performance of 
work is due to acquired habit. This is also 
true of all kinds of work in the business office 
and the workshop. This fact alone shows 
the value of habit in an industrial organiza- 
tion, especially when we realize that habit is 
a disposition as well as an aptitude to do 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 17 

work. The practice brings an involuntary- 
tendency to continue, and with it an ease and 
rehabihty of performance. 

The mental habits are special qualities 
that have been acquired by the same process 
of repetition. The successful man in the com- 
mercial world, the inventor's domain, the 
financier's realm^ or any other branch of men- 
tal work, is one who has acquired habit of 
thought along Hues of special value in his own 
particular field. There are undoubtedly men 
born to each of these callings who would be 
unable to qualify for any other, but these 
cases are so rare that for our present discus- 
sion they may be disregarded. 

New Habits can be Established 

There are also those who during the early 
and most impressionable years have been 
subjected to an environment that has estab- 
lished habits of thought or action of a kind 
unfavorable to the existence of a more desir- 
able kind. 

Both of these kinds are somewhat handi- 
capped in trying to take on other kinds of 
habit of mind or b#dy, but since habit may be 



18 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

built up by mere repetition, there is a chance 
to make over many of these men. 

In case of a man having a dishking for the 
only work at which he can obtain a livelihood, 
whether it is due to inborn traits or traits ac- 
quired from environment, it is a long, hard 
fight. But continued practise will win, and 
in many of these cases it will even drag the 
mind along to a less antagonistic attitude. 

The ideal and easiest way to acquire habits 
of industry is to have the mind lead off in 
desiring such work. Although either process 
makes for skill and other evidences of habit, 
the quickest, easiest way, the one that attains 
the highest efficiency, is one that is acquired 
by an eager, earnest, persistent mind which 
maintains an interest and concentration of 
attention to the subject. 

It is not within our present scope to go back 
to the most impressionable age of child or man, 
for that should antedate the time of his enter- 
ing the industrial world, but this habit problem 
cannot be understood without due allowance 
for the condition in which men are found 
in the industries. This includes, as stated, 
the inborn characteristics and those that have 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 19 

been acquired, especially from environment, 
during the impressionable years. 

After passing the most impressionable stage, 
man acquires his habits of work almost wholly 
under force of circumstances. Generally, how- 
ever, his work habits never become of great 
strength if he has previously acquired a group 
of habits of mind and body that combat the 
acquisition of habits of work. 

That this may become merely a habit of 
action is not denied, but that it may, under 
favorable conditions, become a powerful enemy 
to the adverse mental habit must also be ad- 
mitted. It is this condition on which we must 
depend and build if we are to obtain success 
in the industrial world. 

Organization Efficiency 

Efficiency of the organization as a whole 
depends on the coordination of its various 
elements, and since the men in the organization 
constitute the most important part of all its 
elements, we must see to it that there is the 
most perfect coordination of their movements. 

When a man is on entirely new work and is 
not acting along habit hues, there is no pos- 



20 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

sible way of determining in advance how or 
when his task will be accomplished. Hence 
there is no possibility of coordinating his work 
with the work of others. But when all are 
following a fixed routine, the coordination 
becomes possible, and then we actually have 
an organization working on habit lines, built, 
of course, on the habit processes of the individ- 
ual men in that organization. 

Since efficiency depends on strength of habit, 
we are led to selecting methods that tend 
toward the greatest habit building and strength- 
ening processes. This, like every other road 
of investigation of the elements that affect 
industrial success, leads us directly to the 
choice of policy that favors the most complete 
subdivision of operations. This subdivision must 
be carried as far as possible, so as to give each 
worker the advantage of the skill and the effi- 
ciency of action that is only to be acquired 
by repetition. It also leads us to specialization 
which concentrates the largest possible organi- 
zation to the smallest possible range of work. 

The ultimate supremacy of an organization 
managed by this policy is assured, not merely 
because it limits the field of endeavor of each 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 21 

worker, but because it also limits the range 
of duties of each officer. This results ulti- 
mately in each one becoming highly efficient 
and well informed in that part of the work. 
The "all-round man" cannot successfully com- 
pete with the specialist. 

Objections to Specialization 

The objections to the scheme of ultra- 
specialization are usually born of anxiety over 
the unfitness of a specialist for other work and 
his great handicap in finding work in times of 
depression or general industrial disorganiza- 
tion. This argument against speciaHzation is 
equally potent for the individual and the 
industrial plant, and it frequently deters the 
management from transforming their estab- 
lishment into one devoted to a limited range of 
work. To wave it aside as irrelevant would 
be unwise, but to let it hinder us from travel- 
ing the road that offers greatest opportunities 
would be a serious mistake. 

Value of Habit in the Industkies 

At the present time there seems to be no 
chance of success on other avenues. The 



22 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

assurance, the ability, the absolute control 
of the situation, comes only to the man or 
corporation or nation that is strongly fortified 
by useful habits. 

The power of habit in the industries is one 
of the most clearly demonstrated facts in this 
world. Its value there in solving problems 
has been proven many times, and yet it is 
almost wholly ignored by many of our most 
energetic disciples in the Efficiency crusade. 
The only men who make a stand for the value 
of habit are men who are considered non- 
progressive. Since they belong mostly to the 
silent majority, their views should be most 
carefully considered. 

Most of us who have given careful thought 
to these problems have felt that almost any 
method of work may be changed over com- 
pletely by an appeal to the intellectual ^ide 
of men. And we are well warranted in this 
opinion. But there is reason to believe that 
we have frequently underestimated the force 
of the intelligent energy that must be expended 
to offset the current of habit or custom. 

It is a mere physical task to change the 
course of a river, but to change the habit of 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 23 

thought and action requires a long tnne and 
the use of the subtlest agencies. We can 
introduce new methods of conducting business 
and of manufacture, but in doing so we must 
keep in mind the force of habit of thought and 
action of the mortal man, as he is found in 
the directors' room and in the various positions 
throughout the plant. 

So deeply grooved are these habit ruts that 
a letter written in business seldom contains 
evidence of real fresh thought on the subject. 
Each letter is made up of phrases that have 
been uttered a thousand times, and each state- 
men\t made is the product of thought of other 
days. It is the result of the writer's mental 
attitude, which in turn is the product of his 
past experience. One letter of fresh matter 
written each month requires more energy 
than a month's output of two or three hun- 
dred per day of the routine type. 

Following the Habit Grooves 

When real new matter is put into letters 
or into operations, it is at the cost of either 
mental energy or cash, or both, and if one 
new letter is written without expenditure of 



24 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

mental energy, it is very sure to involve cost 
in cash later. 

It is the same, only to a greater degree, in 
the various operations through a manufac- 
turing plant. Each workman as well as each 
officer follows naturally and most comfortably 
in a habit groove of both thought and action. 

If this statement seems to imply that a change 
is to be advised, then the text has been mis- 
leading, for no such purpose has been intended. 
On the contrary, the condition set forth is 
the natural one, and it is the one that should 
be followed, if an economic success is to be 
attained. Of course, something will be said 
later about schemes of progress which may be 
carried forward, but these schemes must all 
conform to nature as it is seen in the real life 
of the industrial world. They must not be 
the product of abnormally optimistic mortals 
who fail to recognize the normal condition 
under which the real normal man works. 

This should not antagonize the man that 
wants every mortal to have a joy in his work 
that comes from use of the brain. There is 
to be no scheme set forth that will hinder the 
brain-work, but it will minimize the stultify- 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 25 

ing effect of inefficient use of brain. The new 
work, the new thought, the improvement in 
methods and the invention of new means 
should all go forward, but in conformity with 
natural law. The joy in the work should not 
involve financial disaster for a nation, an indus- 
try, or a workman. That would be the joy 
of a fooFs paradise. The joy of the work 
should be had in taking progressive steps in 
natural ways. 

When a business is conducted or work done 
contrary to this principle, it goes contrary to 
nature, and it is generally unprofitable and 
unsatisfactory to the investor, to the officers, 
to the workman, and to the users of the product. 

Human Inertia 

If we wish to arrest a large fly-wheel which 
is running at a high speed, we know that we 
may shut off the motive power and then care- 
fully apply a brake or some other form of 
resistance. We know that an instantaneous 
stopping of its motion is impossible, and that 
shorter methods invite disaster. A fast mov- 
ing express-train cannot be arrested in- 
stantly, and it is equally impossible to instantly 



26 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

get the same train from a standstill to full 
speed. 

In industries we have frequently seen the 
evidence of inertia when an attempt is made 
to change over the method of work. This 
inertia that resists our efforts to change the 
velocity of a moving object, or to move an 
object that is in the state of rest, is usually 
considered as a property of the purely phys- 
ical matter and not wholly applicable to liv- 
ing creatures. 

The principle as it applies to an inanimate 
mass can be readily demonstrated anywhere 
and any time, and that the proof is always 
quickly given and in a way that is seldom 
subject to misinterpretation. But, while the 
case is not so obvious in its application to 
industrial work, its effect cannot be doubted 
by any one who takes a bird's-eye view of the 
various workings in this industrial world. The 
evidence of the effect of inertia of the mind 
and habits of the human being, taken singly 
or in groups, is just as surely written in the 
records of industry as any fact in physics if 
we look at the matter clearly. 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 27 

Human Welfare and Industrial Success 

The plan that gains the greatest real benefit 
for each mortal is the one that in turn brings 
the greatest success to each industry and 
nation, and, if it is universally apphed, to the 
world in general. 

The line of action should be one that takes 
into consideration the inertia of the human 
being, as to habit of both thought and action. 
There should be a constant effort to improve 
conditions, but the progressive work should 
be prosecuted in keeping with the laws of 
inertia. 

It should be an effort of the intelligent kind, 
— one that takes into consideration that all men 
are not equally sensitive to suggestion, — that 
all men are not born to rule or to dream of 
lofty schemes. It should recognize that some 
are happiest with a wholesome kind of work, 
work that gives their bodies the needed exer- 
cise and is sufficiently fatiguing to bring on 
a desire to go home and get the pleasure of 
rest; that some are happier at clerical work; 
that others find their greatest pleasure in the 
skilful control of a machine or instrument, 



28 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

while still others gain most in the study of 
intricate mechanism. 

All of these should be equally considered. 
And last but not least, the greatest thought 
should be given for the man who does not 
spend much time in trying to solve all the 
problems, but who, nevertheless, is the most 
important element to consider on account of 
his representing the greatest number of men. 
He is the one for whom the thinkers should 
think, and when they think for him they 
should not think that he thinks as they think. 
He does not think that way at all. His view 
is from another standpoint. It may be a 
truer view of the real world; surely it is the 
one held by the greatest number. 

The weKare of all men, from the Napoleons 
of industry to the newest recruit into the work, 
should be so considered that each man should 
have the best work for which his endowment 
and general characteristics fit him. 

We lift up a man when we take a worker 
whose greatest achievement has been to ineffi- 
ciently handle a shovel and by patience teach 
him to do a better work; one by which he 
creates more value, — and one in which he can 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 29 

obtain a better wage for himself and family. 
If his brain is not made to guide a nation, this 
work may not be so degrading as it may seem. 
The work for each should be the highest type 
available for him. One of the greatest crimes 
against this or any other mortal is to make 
him discontented with his natural place in 
this world. 

Building on Habit 

The natural and most efficient scheme of 
conducting business is to build on habit. We 
see evidences of this on every hand. The spe- 
cialist is superior to the Jack of all trades. 
This fact has been known for centuries, but 
never before have conditions existed which 
have so forcefully demonstrated it. It applies 
to the business and commercial side of the 
industries as much as it does to the manufac- 
turing side. 

The skill of the workman is due to his con- 
tinual application to his own particular work. 
A lathe hand cannot turn out his best day's 
work without his own lathe and his own tools, 
his own bench and work arid gen'eral surround- 
ings. Give him another lathe of even the same 



30 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

'^make/' and it may be days before he at- 
tains his previous record. Change his work 
frequently, and you have reduced his output. 

This condition goes through all kinds of 
work in manufactory and office. 

There are two general objections to the ultra- 
specialization plan. One is wholly commer- 
cial and the other is wholly humanitarian. 

They are both fundamentally wrong. The 
commercial view seems to show that special- 
ization involves a high cost of selling, and 
that it is impossible to obtain a sufficient 
volume of one kind of work to make it prac- 
ticable, and the humanitarian thinks that it 
degrades the worker to restrict the range of 
his operations. 

Neither of these views takes in the whole 
subject, and either one may lead to an erro- 
neous conclusion. 

We will devote most of our space to discuss 
the practical and economic side of the question. 
But since the mind naturally shrinks from any 
conclusion that is not humanitarian, let us 
first clear away the fallacy that specialization 
in itself is degrading to the workers. 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 31 

Place fob Every Man, Every Man in his Place 

Specialization seems to be the line along 
which we have made our progress. And yet 
we sometimes feel that it must be against the 
welfare of the race when we see unfortunate 
cases of misplaced men, men who are tied by 
circumstances to work that seems to hold them 
down to a lower standard than their natural 
one. But these cases of misfits are not repre- 
sentative of the vast majority. The majority 
of men in the industrial world are in vastly 
better positions than were their ancestors. 

Unfavorable Conditions Must Be Changed 

We know that hard physical labor does not 
produce the clearest mentality; that over- 
strenuous manual effort seems to lower the per- 
ceptive powers; that even monotonous light 
work is a real drudgery, whether it is the use of 
a pen or of light instruments, and that all such 
work may be detrimental to the mind, either by 
hindering its development or by actually damp- 
ening its ambition. Furthermore, nerve-rack- 
ing environment may be detrimental to both 
mind and body. 



32 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

These and many other conditions exist and 
are most unfortunate, but there has never been 
a time when there was less of the adverse 
conditions, and it is probable that the natural 
evolution of things will reduce many of these. 
These conditions are not necessarily an accom- 
paniment of specialization. They are only the 
temporary maladjustment that has always gone 
along with human progress. 

There is a way to greatly minimize these 
unfortunate conditions that is not against the 
interest of the business or the individuals in it. 
And this is the only way that we should take. 
It only involves the use of our brains in seeing 
to it that each man^s work in the world is the 
best that is available for him. And when 
he is in that position, see to it that he is given 
every facility for improvement of which he is 
capable. 

In order to make this clearer, let us see' what 
are the principal elements in this problem. 

Different Kinds of Men 

We know there are all kinds of minds and 
all kinds of bodies. Some need plenty of exer- 
cise: others are most efficient and nearest 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 33 

normal when leading a very quiet life. The 
man who from a lofty position in this world 
feels a desire to lift up every one into a 
more strenuous Hfe is like the boy who gave 
his grandmother a trumpet and drum for a 
Christmas present. He thinks others want 
what he wants, but this is not the case. 

There are men who lead the happiest lives 
in other ways. Their natural work — the 
work in which they most efficiently use their 
energies and in which they get the best devel- 
opment of mind and body — may not be in 
scrambUng after some world-recognized laurel, 
or even laboring to impress their neighbors 
of their great importance on earth. Their 
lives are best lived in their natural pursuit 
of comfortable existence. 

There are many men on earth who do not 
want their brains racked with perplexing prob- 
lems; men who are willing and glad to do any 
work that is wholesome, providing they can 
get a good livelihood; men whose minds are 
not idle, even when doing the so-called monot- 
onous work. 

There are others who, though qualified for 
higher positions, are perforce of circumstances 



34 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

loyally performing their duties in order to keep 
a necessary income; men who, even under 
such circimastances, are using their surplus 
mental energy in the better performance of the 
duties of their work and in study, work, or 
pleasure out of work hours. 

In many cases the position toward which 
an extra ambition might push them would 
render them, by its exaction of strenuous work 
and worry, wholly unfit to lead a comfortable 
existence. Many a worker who at some time 
has had responsibihties thrust upon him knows 
that the real ^' peace of mind that is dearer 
than air* takes flight when the burden of 
responsibiUty is taken on. Such workers have 
found that study at home in the evening is not 
to be enjoyed by a man who comes home 
with brain already tired out by duties of the 
day. 

Such contentment is not understood by 
one who is built by nature to thrive in an 
environment of responsibility. He thinks this 
contented fellow-man is lazy. He does not 
know that there is little or no laziness in 
this world of the kind that that term usually 
implies. 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 35 

Both the so-called lazy and energetic are 
alike following nature's law. The former may- 
need an extra stimulation or force of circum- 
stances to induce him to take the amount of 
work and exercise that is best for his mind 
and body, while the over-energetic man may 
require a treatment of an extremely different 
kind in order to hold him down to the 
greatest performance of which he is capable 
without loss of mental poise. Both extremes 
are on the earth, and there should be a way by 
which each might be placed where his pecu- 
liar characteristics will render the best results 
to himself. 

Fitting the Pegs to the Holes 

In the industrial world all kinds of mortals 
should find their natural places. And with 
the natural evolution which will doubtless 
soon force the human mind to take up this prob- 
lem of proper position for each mortal, there 
will be a great improvement in the conditions 
of the worker in the industrial establishment. 
But it is needless to hope to attain anything 
like contentment and comfort as long as there 
is an irrational raving about the debasing 



36 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

effect of industrial work. The most ordinary 
operations may be performed by men who 
are not quahfied to do better work and who 
without this work would be idle. 

In the same way, all of the various po- 
sitions in an industrial establishment should 
be filled. In each position there should be a 
man who is in the best place in the world, for 
him. 

This digression is not long enough to fully 
state the case, but it is hoped that with what 
follows it will serve to allay any anxiety regard- 
ing the welfare of the worker in the industry 
which tends toward the economic state of 
specialization. 

Specialization 

Specialization divides the work into vari- 
ous classes so as to have all of one kind of op- 
erations performed in one place. It tends to 
reduce the range of operations performed by 
each man. For instance, when a man's work is 
limited to watching a tack-making machine, we 
find that his mind and body fit into the condi- 
tions. This soon results in a more perfect 
comprehension of the intricate mechanism of 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 37 

the machine and in acquiring a wonderful 
skill in making the necessary adjustments. 
He then becomes most efficient in producing 
a large output of tacks. He does this work 
easily; in fact, it is safe to say that efficiency 
and comfort go together. 

This same man would be a very unsatisfac- 
tory workman if required to change from one 
kind of machine to another every day, with 
no chance of running the same kind twice in 
a lifetime. 

To those who have seen and perhaps felt 
the joy that comes to a worker as he invades 
new fields or encounters new problems in his 
own field, there is something repugnant about 
the scheme of specialization which limits each 
mortal to the work in which he has acquired 
skill and in which his mind and body seem to 
act automatically. 

There may be pleasure in rambling through 
the world of work, but it is too much Hke the 
pleasure that comes from dreaming or build- 
ing of air-castles. It is a misuse of our powers. 
It gives a peculiar pleasure to some beings, 
particularly those who have exceptionally 



38 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

active minds, but these same mortals would 
better serve themselves and their families by 
a more efficient scheme. 

Misuse of Energy when Specialization is 
NOT Practised 

In such dissipation of energies there has 
been wasted something that is of greatest 
value. The individual has had the pleasure 
of working very hard, but at the end of the week 
or year or life it is clearly apparent that the plan 
of work has been faulty. It has gone contrary 
to the most efficient scheme, and the awaken- 
ing from the dream has not been pleasant. 

We do a great wrong to men when we direct 
or restrict them to performing their work 
inefficiently. Congenial labor is, we know, 
one of the greatest blessings in this world. 
It is a greater blessing to the worker than to 
any one else, but it should be rightly directed 
by those in positions to direct. If it is allowed 
to be expended in effort that goes contrary 
to all natural laws there is an irreparable loss 
to the world, to the industry, and to the man. 
The drone is of more use to the world than the 
man who misdirects labor. 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 39 

Specialization, when it works as it should,, 
takes into consideration not only man's effi- 
ciency when acting along lines of habit, but it 
gives every aid to making the methods fit the 
requirements of mind and body. The mind 
requires food for thought along the best line of 
which it is capable of thinking. It should 
make a constant effort to fully comprehend 
the work, with a view of fitting for progress 
to the next better position, or if that is wholly 
distasteful or hopeless, then it should have 
some wholesome line of agreeable thought. 

Mind and Body Must Both Be Consideked 

The mind should not be allowed to wander, 
for wander it will if it is not directed. It should 
be furnished with some interest, either in the 
form of study that is taken up out of working 
hours, and which can be permitted to occupy 
the mind while work of the habit kind is being 
done, or, if it is not a study, there should be 
some wholesome interest or pleasure. 

Music to some furnishes this need. Music 
heard in the home or elsewhere will sometimes 
occupy the mind during working hours when 



40 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

the work is of a monotonous character. In 
some instances music has been provided during 
a certain part of the day, just for this need of 
workers who are employed in an occupation 
that in itself furnishes no mental nourishment. 
Readers are also employed in some places for 
the same purpose. 

But these extreme cases do not represent 
the vast majority. They apply only to the 
needs of the mind of those engaged in a work 
in which they can awaken no interest. Nearly 
all kinds of work offer a chance for the aver- 
age man to get interested directly in the work 
itself. Such an interest soon bears fruit in the 
results as well as in the comfort of the worker, 
and it is this phase on which we must depend 
for making specialization comfortable and prof- 
itable to the worker. It is this phase that is 
wholly overlooked by those mentioned above 
who have seen or felt the joy of work that comes 
to one who rambles into a new field. They 
fail to see that the same kind of mental pleas- 
ure may be obtained while working along the 
natural and efficient lines of habit, and that 
in one case they have had pleasure at great 
expense of wasted energy, and in the other 



THE VALUE OF HABIT 41 

case they may have made a true progress for 
themselves and others by moving along the 
natural way. 

Dissipation of Energies 

This tendency to dissipate energies by wan- 
dering into other fields is not confined to 
the worker; it is a most common tendency of 
business men. A manager of an industrial 
estabhshment has to continually combat his 
tendency to divert the energies of the organiza- 
tion along new fines. He knows from past 
experience how dearly bought is each new 
method that is introduced into his organiza- 
tion. He knows, for example, that it would 
make all of his men tardy at the plant in the 
morning if at the hour of arising he has issued 
a request for each man to dress by carefully 
thinking out each move. He knows that the 
day's work would never be well done if he asked 
each one to think before acting. 

We all know that the man who thinks just 
before he speaks and who does not give you 
something that has been at least vaguely for- 
mulated long ago is one who talks nonsense. 
The only spontaneous kind of talk is one that 



42 HUMAN MCTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

is tricky. It is generally in the humorous line, 
and frequently makes an impression that was 
never intended or anticipated by the utterer. 
The really useful talk and work is the result 
of wholesome habit. 



II 

THE INERTIA OF HABIT 

rpHE application of a policy of management 
-*• based on the efficiency of habit is com- 
paratively easy. In fact, it may seem to be 
too easy to be progressive. 

There is no fact in natm-e that is more read- 
ily demonstrated than the inertia of habit. 
This inertia, which constitutes a positive resist- 
ance to a quick change may, when properly 
used, serve to accomplish the greatest results. 

If inertia alone has full sway, there is no 
chance for change, but we know that there are 
many other elements to consider. 

In the affairs of mortals we have been giv- 
ing too great weight to the importance of other 
influences. This is partly due to our false 
idea of the grandeur of man's estate. 

It will not lessen this grandeur to own up 
to some of our limitations. On the contrary, 
there is reason to believe that if we are truly 
great we will not only admit the facts, but we 
will use the data to plot out the best course 



44 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

to pursue, and then we will actually travel 
along that course. 

Giving Inertia its Proper Value 

The important point for us to decide is the 
value to give this element of inertia, when we 
are deciding poHcies of management of affairs 
that come under our control. In all teaching, 
from the kindergarten up, we take full cogni- 
zance of this principle of inertia. In engineer- 
ing we bow low to it. In fact, we actually 
bow low to it in all things, although at times 
it is more in defeat than in gracious courtesy. 

There is in some men a constant desire to 
advance by attaining greater skill, knowledge, 
and efficiency. This desire becomes a strong 
purpose, and it may change the course of the 
mortal, just as the attraction of the sun or of 
some other body may cause the planet to devi- 
ate from the straight course. We know that 
these other influences are very potent in con- 
trolling affairs in this world. In fact, they are 
so potent that they have been given the whole 
credit or blame for the resulting condition. 

It is our present purpose to show that inertia 
has the greatest control under the circumstances 



THE INERTIA OF HABIT 45 

of every-day life, and that the effect of other 
conditions is comparatively small. 

There may be instances of the boy at the 
plow quitting the work in the middle of the 
furrow to take up a great life work. We know 
of men changing from bad to good habits, 
and unfortunately from good to bad, almost 
instantly. We know that great changes in 
processes of manufacturing have been success- 
fully made within a very short time, but all 
these examples are comparatively rare, and 
every one of them, if analyzed thoroughly, will 
show that an immense bottled energy of strong 
purpose was released to produce the change. 

Such cases when viewed with our human 
eyes seem to be the normal and only natu- 
ral way to progress. Surely, great advances 
effected by revolutions in social, political, and 
other habits of thought have on the surface ap- 
peared to be the result of a quick change due 
to the master-mind or wilful purpose of man. 

But the efficient use of this valuable energy 
is more desirable. It should be used in con- 
formity with nature^s laws, just the same as 
we propose to use the energies of those who 
are not goaded on by some great purpose. 



46 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

Building on Old Ideas and Habits 

In considering ways and means for efficient 
management of industrial organizations, it 
is not necessary to commence at the begin- 
ning of each plant. The method of deahng 
with the problems of existing plants is also 
applicable to new organizations, for a new 
organization is only new in a limited sense. 
It uses men of experience. It uses existing 
machines and implements. It follows exist- 
ing methods of conducting business and in 
the general management of its affairs. 

Even the so-called new method which may 
be the center around which the so-called new 
business is built contains very httle that is 
new. The newest things in the ordinary indus- 
trial world contain many old and well-known 
elements. The very use of a so-called new 
method or machine as a center around which 
to build an organization is in itself so old that 
it is a confirmed habit with us to be lured on 
to investing in such things by the statement 
that some new process or means is to be 
employed. 

A really new thing that calls for wholly 



THE INERTIA OF HABIT 47 

new ways and new means for manufacture is 
almost inconceivable. The nearer we approach 
to newness in the industrial world the thinner 
becomes the ice on which we are moving. 
Therefore, let us know that when we advise 
following habit lines in all moves in manage- 
ment of an existing organization we imply 
that the same course should be taken in estab- 
lishing a nev/ company or organization. 

In both cases we should employ existing ways 
and means, experienced men, and well-tried 
implements. Both old and new should be 
conducted along the usual line in conformity 
with the state of the art, the habits of the 
workers, and other conditions indigenous to 
the locality. Any scheme of going contrary 
to the existing customs and usage must be 
entered into with full knowledge of the great 
need of patience, force, and courage to offset 
the barrier of inertia. 

Control of Progressive Energy 

Progressive energy is so valuable that it 
needs no rating at this time. We have had its 
value stated so often that it is actually over- 
rated in the average mind. Not that it has 



48 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

been overvalued, but that the reiteration has 
obscured the importance of other quaUties. 
There should be a greater appreciation of the 
value of energies that are wholly employed 
in accomplishing results by old means and 
methods. 

Progressive energy, when it is kept within 
certain bounds, is a prime asset of an industrial 
organization. It is like a wholesome amount 
of labor to man; it may be drawn upon with- 
out loss, and its use actually strengthens its 
source. But when it is not wisely kept in 
control it only annoys and interferes with 
real progress and real accomplishment of 
results. 

The only way to get work done is to let 
the worker move along habit lines. The only 
way to progress efficiently is to make the new 
ways and means lead off gradually from those 
in use. 

The progressive man who actually directs 
work along such lines is the most valuable to 
the world. The one who ignores the ^'moment 
of inertia'' is a disturber, whether he is a 
director or a "hewer of wood and carrier of 
water." 



THE INERTIA OF HABIT 49 

The man who is doing the real work in the 
world is not the so-called progressive. He is 
one who points out newer or better methods 
which may be easily established by a gradual 
exchange of old habits for new ones. 

The conservative may at times seem to have 
a real aversion to change of any kind, and the 
reason of this aversion may be found by a 
httle thoughtful study of the psychology of 
the case. If we do not get it by study, just 
let us go back in our own memory and think 
of some time when we have been burdened 
down with either strenuous physical strain or 
a combination of mental and physical burden, 
or just plain worry. And, while trudging along 
under this burden, think of the time when a 
most excellent mortal, with good intentions 
but httle knowledge of the real way to help 
another, came forth and told us our method 
of working was absolutely wrong, and how he 
then started in to tell us, by short or long drawn 
out impartial talk, just what we ought to do. 

If our memory records that we smiled 
sweetly and graciously thanked our reformer, 
it is evidence that our memory is either one of 
the most desirable kind, or that we were at 



50 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

that time and are probably still the most 
wonderful of mortals. It is more probable, 
however, that we were not in the mood to 
receive the choice bits of knowledge, and if 
we made reply it did not reflect our best 
selves. 

A thousand examples might be given, but 
one more may suffice. 

Considering the Individual 

Foremen and others who have direct charge 
of workers know that even the best-natured 
man should not be directed contrary to his 
habit method when he is under stress. In 
fact, it is not well to try any new thought on 
a physically tired man. This same worker, 
under conditions of rested mind and body, 
might be a so-called progressive. 

Suppose we take two men exactly alike in 
all respects, with exactly the same knowledge 
of work to be done, and let them together 
undertake to dig a ditch, or repair or adjust an 
intricate machine, or any other kind of work. 
Let one of the men get in an awkward position 
to shovel earth or pull a wrench and become a 
trifle fatigued either by the physical strain or 



THE INERTIA OF HABIT 51 

the worry of the work, and let the other take a 
less strenuous part in the undertaking. We 
will then find that one has been changed into 
a progressive and the other into a conserva- 
tive. The one who is tired from the strenu- 
ous part of the work cannot see why the 
other should suggest digging around a boul- 
der instead of lifting it out of the ditch bodily, 
or why it may not be necessary to dismantle 
the whole machine in order to discover the 
fault. He cannot tolerate any suggestion of a 
new method of working. It is actually easier 
for him to do the work by the more laborious 
but '^habit" method. 

Remember both of these men were the same 
in every respect, both energetic and neither 
one lazy (if, indeed, there is such a thing, but 
that is another story). Remember, too, that 
we can change them from day to day, putting 
first one and then the other in the physically 
strenuous position, and as often as we have 
changed their positions we have changed their 
point of view and they become alternately 
progressive and conservative. 

The brain of the man shoveling in the ditch 
does not work as well as his brother's standing 



52 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

on the bank. The worker does not want to 
be disturbed. You hurt him if you insist on 
his working his brain while his body is under 
stress. And this is one of the fundamental 
points for the director of work to take into 
consideration. 

A Tired Body Dulls the Brain 

It is not necessary to assume that the worker 
has an inferior brain, and in fact we should 
not do so. It is only necessary to know that 
you must not try to extract a full measure of 
energy from the mind when you are already 
taking it from the body. 

I am well aware that there is a possibility 
of developing both mind and body, and that 
some well-informed men think that the con- 
dition mentioned obtains only when there is 
an excess of stress of jmanual or mental labor. 
I have no intention to discuss the fine points 
of the question. I am only stating facts 
that have been observed thousands of times, 
when there has not been a severe burden of 
either kind of work. 

This fact will show us that it is not natural 
for the worker to be interested in the pro- 



THE INERTIA OF HABIT 53 

gressive schemes for betterment of methods of 
work or management of business. That his 
most natural attitude is antagonistic to any- 
thing that is unwisely and thoughtlessly sprung 
on him, and that this attitude is not necessa- 
rily due to his mental or physical make-up. It 
would be there just the same if all men were 
made exactly alike in all respects. It is the 
result of the work he is doing. 

Bearing this state of affairs in mind, it 
behooves the progressive man to approach 
the problem of applying his theories in a very 
careful manner. He must reahze that the 
men in various parts of the work are under 
stress of every day's requirements that makes 
it very difficult to intelligently take up any 
new scheme of procedure. Many an ideal 
doctrine is a beautiful thing in theory, but of 
little value if its introduction require an 
immense but unavailable energy to put it 
into practise. 

He must realize that it is the doing of work 
that counts and that the men who are doing 
things must not be annoyed. All plans for 
betterment must conform to the assimilating 
power of the men and must not cut off their 



54 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

food in time of change. In other words, the 
new plans should be so matched on to the old 
methods that the change to the new will not 
interrupt the production. 

We have seen that the most efficient way 
to use man's energies is to allow him to follow 
habit lines of thought and action, and that 
the highest efficiency is reached when these 
habits are habits of concentration of attention 
and are restricted to the smallest variety of 
work. 

The wandering habits, whether of the 
dreamer, the tramp, or the Jack of all trades, 
are not of the efficient kind. Concentration 
of attention to a given subject brings its reward, 
if the subject is not too ponderous for the brain 
to weigh. 

The Division op Work 

The division of work into separate opera- 
tions makes it possible to divide the subject 
into relatively small sub-problems. This divi- 
sion of the subject itself brings it within the 
capacity of lesser brains and makes it very 
much easier for a brain of greater power. In 
other words, the subdivision of work makes 



THE INERTIA OF ^HABIT 55 

places in which all mental equipments may 
be used. 

It is of no benefit to any one to keep the 
problems difficult by making each man think 
out a process for accomplishing each one of a 
great variety of operations, when the work 
may be so divided that it is only necessary for 
him to think of just one little part of the whole. 
And we should not befog the issue by saying 
that this is degrading. 

Some of the greatest scientists that the 
world has known have concentrated attention 
to the smallest conceivable part of this world, 
pieces so small that the microscope alone 
revealed them to the eye. There is a chance 
for a thinking mind in most of these places 
that have grown out of this process of finest 
subdivision of work. The hardship comes 
only when the mind cannot get interested in the 
work. In many cases this is undoubtedly due 
to a misfit, but in most cases it seems to be 
due to a false notion that there is nothing there 
of interest. 

The subdivision of work must go on. If 
hindered in any one plant or industry or nation 
more than in others, the result will be a loss 



56 HUMAN FACTORS IN WORK MANAGEMENT 

to that one, and on the other hand, the one 
that carries it to the most efficient point will 
become the most powerful. 

This subdivision develops greatest dexter- 
ity and skill, as well as the keenest compre- 
hension of the ways and means of attaining a 
given end. And this dexterity of operation 
is more easily carried on than is the fumbling 
uncertainty of the work of the more primitive 
type. 

WoKKiNG IN Strange Surroundings 

For example, we may take the inefficiency 
of a plumber in a strange house. So inefficient 
is his work under such conditions that we 
charge it all up to laziness or wilful disposition 
to run up a big expense. But, as a matter of 
fact, plumbers are actually human beings, 
made of the same clay out of which has also 
been modeled the more highly efficient worker 
and thinker in other fields. The real differ- 
ence is that he is called upon to work in all 
kinds of places, no two of them alike, and no 
two problems exactly the same. He must 
think and work under the most unsuitable con- 
ditions. His work gives us an extreme example 



THE INERTIA OF HABIT 57 

of the way in which all of the mechanical oper- 
ations were originally carried on, and we can 
see clearly that it is very inefficient. 

We should not lessen the weight of this 
example by introduction of the statement that 
the plumber is seldom under the direct super- 
vision of a foreman or some one who knows 
how the work should be done. For even this 
phase, when carefully considered, is found to 
also indicate that the subdivision gets its 
greatest results from the better supervision 
made possible by the subdivision, not only 
of the work of the workers, but the work of 
the directors of the work. 

In the case of the plumber, a very wise man 
indeed is needed to give him instructions 
about how his work should be done in a strange 
place. It is exceedingly difficult to direct 
work even in a factory, if each workman must 
do a variety of kinds of work. Therefore, it 
will be seen that the subdivision of work 
operates favorably in control and direction 
of work as well as in the execution. 



Ill 

THE DIFFERENT VIEWS OF INDUSTRIAL 
ORGANIZATION 

T A T'E will next consider the views of vari- 
^ ^ ous members of an industrial organiza- 
tion. No two of the members will be found 
who have exactly the same viewpoint. The 
inventor, the business man, the financier, the 
works manager, and others, all have their own 
viewpoint and the resulting mental attitude. 

Let us begin with the inventor's viewpoint. 

The inventor, from his point of view, sees 
the great need and opportunity to improve 
the design of the machine being manufac- 
tured. He sees that the big machines are 
nothing but enlarged editions of the early and 
smaller ones. He knows that with a change of 
size there should be a change of design. He 
knows that although a granite rock weighing 
a few tons will not be kept suspended in air 
by a heavy wind, a small part of the same 
rock will be carried away by a breeze, and may 
be kept suspended by a very slight current of 



THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 59 

air. He knows that the small particle of gran- 
ite has a greater superficial area in proportion 
to its weight. He sees on every hand that 
a change of dimensions frequently entails a 
change of design. 

He also sees the opportunity to effect a 
great saving by building the large machine 
for its special service, and not on the exact 
lines of the smallest model. 

The failure of the management to adopt 
his plans seems nothing less than unreason- 
ableness to the inventor, for Uke other mortals 
he is a trifle slow at grasping the fact that no 
two beings have exactly the same point of 
view or the same quality of sight. 

Another inventor sees a chance to make 
further improvements in the small machine, 
and he is disturbed because there is a ban on 
changes. He feels that the mechanical suc- 
cess of his previous work should be a sufficient 
guarantee of the economic advantage of the 
last proposed plan. 

If an attempt is made to show him that the 
ban on changes is absolutely necessary from 
an economic point of view, it is found that 
the reasoning does not get the same reaction 



60 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

in his mind as in that of the manager. To 
him the great advance of the new scheme 
fully warrants the temporary expense. 

The efficiency engineer is also strenuously 
urging the complete adoption of this or that 
particular scheme. He knows they are good, 
and while all may agree with him in principle, 
considerations of habit make others want to 
adopt these methods only as fast as they can 
be assimilated. They know that the inertia 
of the human mind and body must be reck- 
oned with. In some cases they may wish to 
leave a trifle more freedom of movement than 
is absolutely necessary for the work, in order 
to give the worker a more natural experience. 
For there can be no doubt that a certain free- 
dom of mind and body is essential to normal 
health and to the happiness of man. In the 
old-fashioned scheme of working, the average 
man's work involved a trip to the blacksmith 
shop, the emery-wheel, and the stock-room, 
where he could exchange items of news and 
jokes with others. His trip there gave his 
mind and muscles a restful change, and 
although it consumed time, it kept his mind 
and body nearly normal. 



THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 61 

The Manager's View 

The important duty of weighing up these 
various views devolves on the management, 
and its action should be in accordance with 
the complete and corrected view. It must 
consider the subject from all of a top viewpoint, 
and must then act. 

The manager keeps in mind that the machines 
must be built, purchased, and used by human 
beings, so he carefully studies their peculiar- 
ities. He knows that change of thought or 
habit requires time. 

In looking over the history of one of the 
companies engaged in machine building, we 
find that the cost of the labor has been lowered 
to about one fifth of the original. In view of 
this and the fact that a very slight change in 
model sometimes involves a temporary increase 
in the cost of labor threefold or more, we see 
good reason for reluctance in making changes, 
even though we know that two or three years 
later the labor cost may drop as low as that 
previous to the change in model. 

The inventor, the promoter, the salesman, 
and the oversanguine manager do not always 
foresee such things. 



62 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

The manager sees the enthusiasm with 
which the seUing organization hails the new 
model. He realizes that they know the faults 
of the previous type, and he also knows that 
no one knows the faults of the new, but he lets 
it go. Some enthusiasm must be had, even 
if it be dearly purchased. He knows there 
will be many a troublesome delay due to the 
newness, even if the whole scheme proves 
very much better than the previous type. 

This manager knows that his business success 
rests on the facility with which the machines 
are satisfactorily built, the readiness of the 
buyers, and, last but not least, the facility 
with which the product is used. The facility 
with which the product will be used is to his 
mind almost beyond overestimation. 

The Value of a Market 

In estimating the value of an industrial 
establishment it is customary to guess at the 
value of its market. 

In the machine building industry it is 
based on the satisfactory or profitable use 
to which the product is put. This satisfac- 
tory use depends largely on the number of 



THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 63 

men who can and who wish to operate the 
machine. 

This may not always be apparent, for the 
particular machines are usually purchased at 
the direction of some of the head officers. On 
the surface, it would seem that the availability 
of good operators had little or nothing to do 
with the case. A closer investigation, however, 
brings out the fact that it has very much to 
do with it, for machines will not be in demand 
for which operators are not available. 

It is not necessary that an experienced oper- 
ator should be waiting in each plant for each 
machine that is purchased, but it is necessary 
that each machine installed be set to work 
satisfactorily in a reasonably short time. For 
a failure to be satisfactorily used bars further 
purchases by all who may have known about 
the case. 

The facility with which a new man may be 
instructed depends, of course, on the simplic- 
ity of the machine and the extent of the gen- 
eral education regarding it in the minds of the 
foreman and various workers who are in posi- 
tion to affect its output. And furthermore, 
a machine which has the name of giving sat- 



64 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

isfaction is given a little more patient effort 
in starting and in breaking in a new operator. 
But the real basis of the value of the market 
for the product of a machinery building com- 
pany depends on the facility with which its 
product may be used, and this should be one 
of the elements kept in mind by the man- 
ager of a machine manufacturing plant in 
deciding on improvements and changes in his 
product. He should always remember the 
human characteristic in the user. 

Improvements Often Bring Trouble 

Improvements or changes should not be 
made that are not readily assimilated by the 
maker, the seller, and the user. Changes 
that require effort to digest may be whole- 
some in their stimulation of receptive facul- 
ties of an individual and an organization, and 
they may be full of glory, but they are not to 
be indulged in too freely. 

Changes that are in the direction of simplic- 
ity and actual betterment by avoiding some 
excessively objectionable feature should be 
tolerated, but the manager knows from past 
experience that each new improvement is 



THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 65 

full of trouble to the maker and to the user, 
and that a new thing is not a profitable thing 
till it is an old thing. When it is an old thing 
its faults are all known, and then the sanguine 
inventor and the selling organization generally 
puncture the profits by inducing the manage- 
ment to take the next step forward. 

There is neither an intent in this to belittle 
the work of the enterprising optimist nor to 
advise stagnation in machine design. A cer- 
tain amount of progress must be made in 
nearly all industrial estabUshments at this 

time. 

The fullest possible comprehension of this 
problem of human inertia, in matters of change 
and progress, should be in the mind of every 
officer of an organization. Every workman 
and foreman having a desire to make sugges- 
tions on helpful lines should get this fact firmly 
in mind and measure every new plan by it. 

Progress Must Continue 

But, you ask, is there to be no progress in 

the industrial world? Will the progressive 

ones die out and only the ultra-conservative 

survive? Is there to be no word in favor of 



66 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

progress in at least some of the departments 
of industrial organizations? 

Should not some words be said right here 
setting forth the advantages of invention? 

You have doubtless anticipated the answers 
to each of these, for you know that no rational 
being would in these days advise throttling 
invention or blockading progress. 

We know that the fittest for surviving will 
be the inteUigently progressive and that there 
should be a gradual progressive change in 
every department. 

Invention must play its part in the really 
desirable advance, but so much has been said 
about the wonderful economic advantages of 
this and that scheme of management, and this 
or that invention, and so little has been said 
on the inertia problem, that there seems to 
be a need of a few words on the latter, to strike 
the true balance. 

Capacity for New Ideas 

The assimilating capacity of the industrial 
world is the real gauge of the progress which 
should be indulged in. This capacity to take 
in new ideas and to work by new methods is 



THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 67 

not the same in all beings, and it is not the 
same in all organizations. There are ways 
by which it may be measurably increased. 
New views are more readily digestible if pre- 
sented by enthusiastic advocates, as this stim- 
ulates an interest. Any attempt to forcibly 
inject new ideas only results in indigestion. 

The assimilating capacity of an industrial 
organization can be greatly increased by any 
scheme that awakens an interest. The con- 
trolhng poHcies should include advance in 
efficiency and generally in the quality of work 
turned out, but this advance should not involve 
a break in the output. It should be based on 
a knowledge of the whole business. In other 
words, it should not only pay in the long run, 
but if possible it should pay from the moment 
it goes into effect. 

Money Not the Only Dividend 
The major poHcies of management that 
should be known to the inventor are those 
which have been adopted to make the business 
''pay." Not necessarily to pay in dollars and 
cents today, but to pay in every sense, and 
in the long run, in dollars and in other things. 



68 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

It cannot pay in dollars if the other things 
are missing. By other things are meant good 
organization built on best conditions of mind 
and body for each of the beings included in 
the organization. On such things the stability 
of the organization depends. 

No matter how much the manager of a busi- 
ness may wish to run it for other things exclu- 
sively, or for dollars exclusively, he will find 
that one is not attained without the other. 
He is forced to run a business for the dollar 
if he wishes to make an ideal organization for 
each member of the human family included 
in it. And vice versa, he must work toward 
best conditions for all the workers if he wishes 
to protect the capital invested by making a 
stable and fairly long-lived organization. 

This statement is inserted here to clear 
away doubts as to the real value or necessity 
of '^making a business pay,'^ and to make it 
clear that no thought is to be tolerated of any 
scheme of management adverse to the real 
interest of the workers. 

The men selected for each of the various 
positions should be men who are fitted to fill 
these very positions. This does not mean 



THE DIFFERENT VIEWS 69 

mere physical and mfental fitness; it means 
each position should be filled by one who 
wants it, one who knows he is "better off'' in 
it than in any other place he can find. Dissat- 
isfied men are burdens. It is better to have 
each position filled by a man who is barely 
competent to fill it than to have it filled by a 
man who should have a much better position. 
Of course, this is the ideal, and all moves 
should be made in this direction whenever it 
is possible. As a rule, it is easier to find men 
on this basis than to find men who are bigger 
than the office. This scheme leads to more 
promotions in the organization and has a stim- 
ulating effect on all concerned. 



IV 

INCREASING THE ASSIMILATING 
CAPACITY 

T^ rE have said that all changes should be 
^ ^ of the digestible kind, and the feeding 
process should not be a stuffing process; that 
the ingestion should not exceed the digestion. 
We have also briefly mentioned the impor- 
tance of keeping the digestion tuned up to the 
best speed by having the organization in a 
condition to most readily take in changes. 

That we must make some allowance for 
inertia of thought and habit in all mortals 
goes without saying, but the exact amount 
to be allowed is very difficult to estimate. 

Successful management depends on the 
degree with which a man can estimate the re- 
ceptivity of other beings with whom he deals. 
This knowledge of receptivity should include 
the thought and action of men all the way 
from the unskilled worker to the directors, 
and also that of all men in other organizations 
in any way affected by his organization. 



INCREASING THE ASSIMILATING CAPACITY 71 

Just as food is more digestible if agreeable 
to the palate, so this receptivity or assimilat- 
ing power may be increased by presenting new 
ideas and methods in agreeable form. A 
full realization of the effect of this inertia of 
thought and habit makes the great efficiency 
of specialization more comprehendable. 

It is this human side that is the key, and 
if we do not act in full accord with it we 
will probably be working against a great 
handicap. 

The inertia works two ways. It hurts a 
progressive man just as much to be tied to a 
work that requires no brainwork as it hurts 
a sleepy member to be disturbed by progressive 
talk. 

Selection of Equipment 

In the organization, the selection of methods 
of working should always be on the side of 
those that faciUtate progress. In the selec- 
tion of machinery, some thought of possible 
changes should be allowed consideration. 

By this statement I have no intention to 
drag in contested theories or any particular 
interest, but I do want to show that the hope 



72 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

of progress is greatly increased by use of 
methods that favor it. Inertia rightly used, 
then, is for ultimate progress, and not against 
it. Specialization is also actually for prog- 
ress, when that speciahzation is progressively 
constructing a given machine. 

Some years ago the builders of a certain 
type of machinery found there were many du- 
pHcate pieces to be made that came within the 
working range of a certain variety of special 
machines. They figured the saving in net 
cost of labor of machining these pieces could 
be reduced from 75 per cent to 90 per cent 
by the introduction of these machines. But 
they were embarrassed at the conflicting opin- 
ions regarding the advantages of the various 
machines in the general class called special. 

The machines which would save 75 per cent 
of the labor cost almost as much as the machine 
that would save 90 per cent. On a further 
investigation, they found that for a given out- 
put the machines that would save 90 per cent 
would cost, with their first equipment of special 
accessories, from three to four times as much 
as the other, but that constituted no barrier. 
The directors voted to introduce the machines 



INCREASING THE ASSIMILATING CAPACITY 73 

which would effect the greatest reduction in 
labor cost. But let us see what has been the 
result. 



Labor Cost Not the Only Consideration 

They found that the introduction of these 
machines required running work through in 
larger lots. The larger lots required bigger 
storerooms for parts. The machines, which 
were more or less self-operating, effected their 
saving not by pushing the cutters to their 
full limit, but by so reducing their cutting 
speed and feeds that one man could oversee 
a number of machines; for in the regular order 
of work the operator seldom happens to be 
at the right machine in time of trouble. 

Three times the number of buildings were 
required to give the required floor space. 
As years passed, it was also found that making 
stock in larger quantities resulted in having a 
lot of obsolete stock on hand. It was not 
clearly shown in the annual statement, because 
it appeared as a large inventory. It was not 
charged off, because it might be used in the 
future. There was also inventoried at full 



74 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

value a lot of obsolete accessories in the tool- 
room, besides a number of machines that were 
limping along trying to make use of tools that 
were designed for other work. It was found 
that unbearable delays followed the change of 
design. The average time for a lot of special 
tools was about six months. Six months seemed 
a long time to be handicapped with this inflex- 
ible, inadaptable equipment. 

The extra stock, the buildings, the first cost 
of machines and first tools, the accumulative 
cost due to new tools, the upkeep of the regu- 
lar tools, all seemed bad enough without the 
added handicap of a barrier to progress of an 
inadaptable equipment. 

Output per Dollar Invested 

Of course, no one could have foreseen a few 
years ago that the high-speed steels would so 
change the scheme of cutting metals that it is 
advisable to have a man watching every cutting 
tool and every expensive machine tool in order 
to get the biggest output per dollar invested 
in it, and no one knew ten years ago that 
form tools are not often the best for turning 



INCREASING THE ASSIMILATING CAPACITY 75 

off metal. All this has transpired within a 
few years, but every one should know that 
capital invested in a business must be put 
where it will do the most good, where it will 
bring the largest percentage of return. 

If it is not so placed, the business is sure to 
be throttled. If it takes ten times as much 
capital to get a given output, and the net 
result does not increase the security of the 
investment or the profit per dollar invested, 
it is evidence of poor management. 

The inadaptability of an equipment might 
be tolerated by the average optimistic man- 
ager because he feels that he must win under 
the present conditions. He knows that the 
problem is perplexing without the addition of 
probable future needs. 

Fundamental Principles 

Our progress and present position in the 
industrial world is due in a large meagre to 
our conformity with the great fundamental 
principles of industrial economics. 

Our present standing should not make us 
unmindful of the new conditions, conditions 
incident to greater complexity of both mechan- 



76 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

ism and industrial life. The conditions are 
best understood from the human side, after 
we have made ample deduction for our own 
aberration of view. 

In the foregoing I have stated the impor- 
tance of best understanding of our fellow-man, 
and that it results in conclusion that he is 
really a good fellow, fairly disposed as we 
are. 

I have shown that we all do not possess 
the same views. 

I have shown the power of habit and how it 
makes for stability and progress. 

I have shown the effect of inertia of mind 
and body of ourselves and others. 

I have had in mind that inertia was the 
property of an object to continue at rest or 
motion, without change, and that progress 
might be made by intelligently working to 
overcome the inertia of stagnation, 
i If we will all continue to work as we have 
worked in the past, we will continue near 
the head of the procession. Just now we are 
observing a very progressive spirit in other 
countries. I think we were and are leaders in 
many respects. I believe we can continue to 



INCREASING THE ASSIMILATING CAPACITY 77 

gain, but if we do, it must be along the lines 
of intelligent specialization, progressively spe- 
cializing in each line of manufacture of a given 
machine. It will not be contrary to laws of 
habit and of inertia. 



PART II 

SOME NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF 
MACHINE DESIGN 



SOME NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF 
MACHINE DESIGN 

THE following chapter is given in its original 
form as a lecture to the Engineering Soci- 
ety of the Stevens Institute of Technology. 

Its value in furnishing a side-light on the 
subject of habit, to which the preceding chap- 
ters have been more directly apphcable, hes 
in its emphasis on the importance of the in- 
ventor (or designer, if you prefer) having clearly 
before him at all times the effect of habit 
methods of thought and action both in himself 
and in all others. These modes must be con- 
served and combated in himself when build- 
ing up favorable mental states. He must 
build on habit in order to have his mind con- 
tinue in its application to a chosen subject, 
and he must combat any tendency to follow 
habit lines of thought that have been estab- 
Ushed by observation of the older forms or 
methods. His inventions must be of a kind 
that will be readily made, sold, and used by 



82 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

men whose habits of thought and action he 
cannot readily change. 

This should be of value not only to the 
designer, but also to those who direct or co- 
operate with him. 

Natural Fitness 

One of the first questions that arises in the 
mind of one who intends to undertake machine 
design is, what constitutes natural fitness for 
it. There seems to be no positive basis on 
which to determine in advance a natural fit- 
ness for this work, but there are certain tem- 
peramental characteristics that undoubtedly 
have much to do with the success. 

The temperament should be one favorable 
to continuity of thought along a given line, as 
well as one that will by nature take an intense 
interest in the subject. 

If these characteristics are missing, it may 
be due more to the distracting interests that 
in these days crowd in upon the mind, than 
to a lack of natural aptitude. The absorbing 
interest, however, is essential, and it may be 
developed by conforming to well-known prin- 
ciples of orthodox psychology. Self-torture 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 83 

or hard driving is not nearly as helpful as a 
strong inner purpose to keep the chosen sub- 
ject in the real center of conscious thought. 

The subject that comes to mind when there 
is a lull in the outside demands on the atten- 
tion, or one that is insistent on taking posses- 
sion of the mind, even when other matters 
are objectively more in evidence, — that sub- 
ject is the one that holds the center of the 
inner attention. That is the controlling idea 
or purpose. Ordinarily, it is some diversion; 
occasionally, the haunting bugbear of some 
unfinished work or obUgation. If the mind is 
dominated by such ideas or any other than the 
real problem in hand, the individual is seri- 
ously handicapped. 

When a problem of machine design is under- 
taken, the mind must make it the real center 
of attraction. To one having an average en- 
dowment for such work, this is not a difficult 
task, but to get the best results it should be 
rightly undertaken. 

Repeated Thinking 

A chosen subject is brought, with some 
lasting effect, to the center of attraction by 



84 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

repeatedly bringing it into the mind at the 
moments of lull in the pressure of other affairs. 
The astronomers wait for the moment of best 
seeing, and the designer must wait for the 
actual psychological moment. 

The best seeing condition for the astronomer 
is due in a small measure to his own physical 
condition, and in a large measure to atmos- 
pheric conditions, but the most opportune 
time for clear-headed vision of the designer 
is due mostly to his own physical and mental 
condition. 

Probably no two men have their minds 
equally affected by their environment or their 
physical condition, but the fact that there is 
a most favorable time and condition for such 
thought and work should continually be borne 
in mind. Without this a man with natural 
endowment may try his wings at flight at an 
inopportune time, and if he fails he may be 
firmly convinced that he was never made for 
flying. 

This undoubtedly applies equally well to 
other kinds of work. It may not be strictly 
true of a perfectly normal man (if there be 
such a creature), but it is truly appHcable 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 85 

to many workers in this and similar kinds of 
work. 

This phase is mentioned in order to make 
clear, not only how a designer should work, 
but the thought that should be kept upper- 
most in the mind of one who is trying to do 
this work. 

The physical condition is more or less de- 
pendent on the mood, and to a great extent the 
mood is dependent on the condition of the 
body. The strenuous gait is seldom the best, 
and, of course, the extremely indifferent one 
is of Httle value. The best for the average 
man is one born of a quiet environment, with 
mind and body in a fairly restful condition, 
or still better, in a rested and fresh condition. 

Concentrating Attention 

The quiet end of the day is almost as good 
for clear thinking as the early morning, espe- 
cially if the day has not been overstrenuous and 
the activities have been gradually tapered off. 

There are many instances that would seem 
to show that the strenuous gait is the best, 
but nearly all of these evidences are ques- 
tionable. When finally simmered down, the 



86 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

good work done under high pressure is fre- 
quently due to latent ideas that were the 
product of quiet thinking. The mood and 
the dominant idea may be predicated as 
necessary. 

As already stated, the habit of thought most 
favorable for the persistence of a single group 
of ideas is attained by the practice of switch- 
ing the attention back to the desired subject. 

This should be done at the opportune time. 
The subject should not be habitually forced 
on a tired mind. It should not be taken in 
as a painful duty, but it should be made the 
one thing of interest. Really valuable results 
can only come along the line of the dominant 
thought. All other work lacks directness. 
It follows precedent to an unnecessary extent. 

Interest Must be. Awakened, Not Forced 

Another way of saying all this is that the 
designer must get interested in the particular 
problem, and he must have an interest that 
crowds out all other thoughts, even thoughts 
of similar work. It is useless, however, to 
say, '^get interested in the work," unless we 
suggest a way to awaken interest. Surely, 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 87 

we know that interest does not come at mere 
bidding, and that it cannot be forced by hard 
work. But it can be induced by an easy proc- 
ess in a normal being, providing he has not 
already too firmly estabhshed a set of habit 
thoughts of another kind. 

The normal being, by persistent intention, 
can establish the desired thought habits by 
returning the preferred group of ideas to mind. 
Interest is awakened by this comparatively 
easy process, and when a genuine interest 
exists, the actual work follows as a natural 
result, and it is a pleasure instead of a drudgery. 

This is not intended as preaching in any 
sense; but only to bring to mind facts known 
to all, with the view of implanting these facts 
in the mind of the machine designer. 

Some designers have done excellent work 
with no thought of psychological problems. 
But in this more strenuous age it seems best 
to take advantage of every aid to the desired 
end. 

The intricacy of mechanism has reached 
such a state that new designers are almost 
overwhelmed with the mere thought of trying 
to comprehend the existing machines. But 



88 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

with the advance of the world of machinery 
there has been a better comprehension of the 
working of the 'thinking machine/' and we 
must take advantage of this knowledge in 
order to win out. It is particularly needful 
now to study its most efficient use. We are 
getting to the point where mental energy 
saving methods should be used. 

It is not necessary to go beyond the bounds 
of orthodox science for schemes for getting the 
best results from a given mind. We have 
known for centuries that men tend to habits 
of thought as well as action, — that thought 
habits are like ruts, and these are encountered 
wherever the mind travels, and these ruts 
bring the mind back to a certain central group 
or community of groups of ideas. 

Establishing Useful Ruts 

The real secret of success is in establishing 
ruts of a useful kind, ruts with switches that 
may be operated by the mind at will, or that 
work automatically when the mind would 
otherwise wander. 

Since even fleeting thoughts are germs of 
acts, it takes no great effort or self-torture if 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 89 

we will but understand the processes and 
smoke out the undesirable germs, and allow 
and encourage the growth of the preferred 
groups of thoughts. This may be called a 
lazy man's way of doing things, but it is the 
way to conserve the mental and physical 
energy, and it gets results. 

In saying that the problems of the work in 
hand should come automatically and agree- 
ably into the mind when there is a lull in the 
impression being made by other things, it is 
not the intention to convey the meaning that 
one must have no other aim and ambition. 

The mind is constantly receiving messages 
through the senses. These are fired at a rapid 
rate. The human mind automatically selects 
from these messages those that fit into the habit 
of thought. 

The habit of thought should be formed in 
accord with one's best interest. 

It is forming right thought habit that is 
essential to the machine designer. 

This is best accompUshed by the already 
mentioned scheme of diverting the attention 
from distracting impressions and returning it 
to its proper channel. 



90 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

Although it goes without saying that this 
should be done in the strenuous hours of work, 
the really efficient and easiest way is to do this 
thought diverting at the lull — the quiet — 
the moment when all kinds of fleeting thoughts 
travel through the mind. 

One easy way to build up this habit is to 
begin by displacing annoying thoughts with 
thoughts of work problems, and after a time 
it becomes easy to cut out every other thought. 

Problems to Consider 

In taking up the problems of design of a 
machine, there will be found an almost endless 
number of elements to consider. The strictly 
mechanical problem of the best machine for 
the purpose never stands alone. 

What is the measure of the best machine? 
How much can be spent on its design and con- 
struction? How much work is to be done? 
An endless variety of questions at once crowd 
into the mind for answer. 

It is doubtful if all the elements could ever 
be tabulated in any form that would be a 
positive guide in shaping the final result, but 
in a general way the designer should make a 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 91 

fairly good guess at the kind of standard toward 
which he should work. 

There are, doubtless, men capable of carefully 
weighing the almost infinite number of vari- 
ants, but such men usually lack the intuitive 
scheme of work, on which the inventive side 
of a designer depends. 

For the ordinary mortal the best process 
of working is to keep a vague picture of the 
whole requirement in mind while concentrat- 
ing on some one phase. 

When the inventive qualities are to be called 
into use, the economic side, the business side, 
the manufacturing, the selhng, the personal 
profit in cash or glory, all these must be abso- 
lutely crowded out of the center of the mental 
picture. Even fleeting thoughts of other ele- 
ments seem to prevent the inventive function- 
ing of the mind. 

In like manner the problems of manufac- 
turing, selling, patents, business organization, 
must each be given a separate consideration. 
The interval between taking up the various 
questions should be as wide as possible. The 
mind seems to require a previous notice of 
days or weeks or more in order to take up 



92 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

any one of these problems, at least, with any 
hope of success. 

Designing by the Square Foot 

The ordinary work of machine design, in 
which well-known parts are grouped to accom- 
plish a given end, without much thought of 
attaining anything approaching the best, — such 
designing is like painting a fence, so many 
square feet of paper should be covered per day. 
But the real higher type of work cannot be 
measured in this way. It requires the fore- 
thought, the close application, the keen interest, 
and the comfortable idea building. 

Designing by the square foot is, however, a 
good preparation, and many a good brain has 
been developed by such work. 

The importance of designing a machine to 
meet all the conditions necessary to success 
from a mechanical and business standpoint 
is fully recognized by every one. But the 
grouping of the ideas in the mind while work- 
ing out the various phases must not be ham- 
pered by the bewildering picture of all of these 
problems, each demanding consideration at 
every move. The phase in hand must have 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 93 

the concentrated attention and the best con- 
ditions for its solution. 

The harmonizing is an after-process which 
must be worked out by a series of compromises 
after the various component elements have 
been almost independently considered. 

Invention Should Not Mix with Detail 

In working out the mechanical schemes no 
energy should be wasted in trying to make 
the sketches correct in proportion. The very 
functioning of the brain along the draftsman's 
line shifts it away from the inventive mood. 
The exact drawing frequently shows the neces- 
sity of change in general scheme, but that is 
only one of the after-steps. 

The fundamental idea is the starting-point, 
and must be sketched out as fully as possible 
without losing the very frail thread of thought. 

A clear view of the scheme is not to be 
obtained on demand. The schemer must wait 
in patience, as the astronomer waits for steady 
air, and, like the astronomer, he must have 
every facility in shipshape. The clear view 
is only clear to the watching eye. 

The coast-wise skipper in making a fog- 



94 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

bound harbor will see a buoy through a sHght 
shift in fog, while a landsman might look in 
vain. 

The wanderer in the happy dreamland of 
mechanical scheming must not be looking for 
complete drawings, specifications, and working 
model of the invention he wishes to bring into 
the breathless and waiting world. He must 
be looking through the mist of the thickened 
senses as the skipper looks through the fog. 
The buoy and the scheme may be never so 
faintly shown, but yet with sufficient clear- 
ness to give a positive guide for the course. 

Inventive schemes cannot be forced by stren- 
uous effort. Such effort may result in slight 
refinements of a given type, but never would 
have invented the DeLaval or Tesla turbine. 

It is not my purpose to belittle the great 
work that has been done in improving existing 
machines, for this, after all, is the real great 
work that must be done. It is the work to 
which the world owes its greatest debt for 
progress in material wealth. Furthermore, it 
is a phase that must be considered in connec- 
tion with every invention before that inven- 
tion can become of value to any one. But 



NON-TECHNIGAL PHASES OF DESIGN 95 

just now we must consider how the inventor 
must work while dreaming out the fundamen- 
tal ideas of a mechanical scheme. 

The clear view of a mechanical scheme is 
more likely to come after a good night's rest, 
particularly if the schemer has retired with 
the problem in mind. There are times when 
invention comes under severe stress, hard 
physical work, and mental anxiety, but the 
most usual time is after a sleep which refreshed 
mind and body. After this the inventor 
brings his scheme to the drafting board, 
to patent office, to the factory, and to the 
market, and in each case he encounters 
barriers. 

The Hero of the Eraser 

The drafting board may show that no such 
arrangement of parts can ever be made, that 
the whole scheme must be altered to make it 
practical. A real hero is required for the work 
of juggling the elements of a drafting board. 
He must have patient endurance and sufficient 
strength of character to use the eraser heroic- 
ally, for the eraser is mightier than the pencil 
in the drafting-room. There are a thousand 



96 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

valiant knights armed with pencils to one 
stalwart pusher of the eraser. 

In the drafting-room the work of harmoniz- 
ing must go on; compromises must be made 
between the ideal scheme of the dreamer and 
the requirements of the manufacturing and 
selling departments. 

Next to the noble knight of the eraser comes 
the ideaUst who has been toughened by experi- 
ence in the cold world. 

The idealist aims to design and construct a 
perfect machine. He is encouraged in his 
work by seeing a little clearer each day, month, 
and year of the time spent in the right kind 
of application to his work. He knows that 
the work of last year is faulty, that this year's 
work seems nearly perfect, excepting for a 
certain slight change that has just entered 
his mind. He cannot think of allowing any 
machine to be made without this later improve- 
ment. 

He is inchned to the optimistic view, his 
memory works best on the good work of the 
past, and is extremely poor in holding afresh 
the view of previous mistakes. 



NON-TECHNIGAL PHASES OF DESIGN 97 

The Toughened Idealist 

The toughened ideaHst may not look or act 
like an ideahst, but in reality his idealism is 
one of the practically-wise construction. He 
allows his memory to hold all that is helpful 
of the past, both of the blunders or successes. 

The dreamer who has been toughened by 
experience is one who lets his rational brain 
have control. He ranks next to the stalwart 
knight of the eraser, because he has the cour- 
age to arrest the endless tinkering of design in 
order to get something done. He will not let 
the family freeze while he is thinking up some 
grand scheme of sawing and spHtting wood by 
magic. 

A most cursory glance at the machinery 
in use in the world will show that the work 
has been done by imperfect machines. A 
study of the design of any machine brings out 
the innumerable shortcomings. 

If we see a machine that seems perfect, it 
is perfectly safe to set it down in black and 
white that we do not fully comprehend it. It 
is safe to say that the only perfect machine is 
the new model that is to be tried very soon. 



98 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

With these facts in mind it does not require 
very much courage to go ahead with an im- 
perfect design, but unfortunately these thoughts 
will not stay in the mind of the average mortal. 
They are crowded out by the flood of ideas 
for still further betterment. That is why it 
is just to give high rank to the man who had 
courage to go ahead and build, even when he 
realized the faults of a design. 

Perhaps one of the aids to this action is the 
knowledge that the apparent opportunity to 
improve a design may only be apparent. In 
reality the change is only a change, and is no 
betterment, a very common outcome of such 
ideas. The knowledge of the great array of 
failures of such ^^improvements'' is wholesome 
and helpful to bear in mind. 

CONFOKMING TO ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

In designing the parts of a machine, the 
need of trimming here and there, of giving up 
this or that ideal form just to get things to- 
gether, must be seen and done unflinchingly. 
And in the same way the whole scheme must 
be made to conform to the economic conditions. 

If the machine under consideration is like 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 99 

a machine tool, and is to be offered for sale, 
then the manufacturing, seUing, and use must 
be taken into account. In machine-tool de- 
sign a wholly new invention is an exceedingly- 
rare thing, and a successful new machine is 
still more rare. 

We must remember our own tendency to 
follow precedent, and we must make an effort 
to see the problem in its natural form without 
being misled by the solutions evolved by others. 

Getting Back to Natuke 

This scheme of getting back to nature — 
of weighing up the elements unhampered by 
precedence — is the one most helpful in orig- 
inal work. 

Designers strive to get out of the ruts of 
habit of design. They try to avoid making a 
railway carriage like a horse-drawn vehicle. 
They eliminate the unnecessary elements of 
previous designs. They try to make the 
best piece of mechanism for the purpose under 
consideration, and even if they are wholly 
successful in this respect, they may after all 
be doomed to disappointment if they have 
failed to take into consideration that others 



100 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

cannot be easily changed over to the new 
idea. It is one thing for an inventor to get 
himself out of a rut, and still another to get 
others out. 

This knowledge of the force of habit of man 
should therefore be used in two ways: — 

First, when the designer is trying to make the 
most natural machine for the purpose. Then 
he must overcome his own tendency to follow 
precedent. Second, when considering the kind 
of a machine that can be easily made, sold, and 
used, he must give due consideration to the 
inertia of others, for their inertia he cannot 
hope to quickly change. Reformers in this 
world generally have a hard time whenever 
they underestimate the inertia of men's minds 
and bodies. 

A designer of machinery, by close application 
to his tasks, should bbtain a clearer view than 
it is possible for others to possess, of the way 
a machine should be designed, made, and used. 
It is not necessary to assume he has a better 
brain. An ordinary mind applied to a given 
subject sees it more clearly than an abler 
mind which has not considered the subject 
with the right interest. 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 101 

Technical View Insufficient 

But whether the clear view of the designer 
is due to pecuHar fitness for seeing such things, 
or to proper apphcation, the fact remains 
that this clear view of the technical side is 
insufficient in itself. The man with the clear 
view must also reahze that others do not get 
the same view. He must know that the mind 
automatically takes in things of interest to 
it and wards off others. Even when the indi- 
vidual apparently tries to comprehend some- 
thing in which he has no special interest, it 
only results in a superficial mental impres- 
sion, one that has no appreciable effect on the 
actions. 

This failure of mankind in general to grasp 
the advantages of a new mechanism as it 
appears on paper is only a sUght part of the 
troublesto be encountered by a progressive 
designer. 

He has to contend with habits of thought 
and action of all the human beings affected 
by the new machine. This includes the entire 
group of men in the manufacturing plant in 
which the machine must be made, the business 



102 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

organization both in this plant and the one in 
which it is to be used, and, after all this, the 
greatest obstacle of this kind is to be met in 
the man who uses the machine. For it is in 
his hands that a machine must prove its 
value. 

When we consider the inertia of mind and 
body, it is truly marvelous that there has been 
any progress in machine design. In fact, if 
the machine-building trade were in retrogres- 
sion, with only a few new men being taken 
in there would be little or no excuse for mak- 
ing machine tools of new design. The older 
workers would get along about as well without 
the improved machines. 

This is not said in a spirit of faultfinding. 
It is a great fact that we should grasp if we are 
to design machinery successfully. 

It is difficult for the man of sanguine temper- 
ament to really accept this view, and it is also 
hard for one who is continually searching for 
knowledge. But it must be appreciated, and 
all work must conform to this principle, if 
it is to be pushed forward along the lines of 
easiest progress. 
^ Accepting this view is no barrier to progress. 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 103 

It will not ultimately delay the work of a 
reformer if he is induced to act in accordance 
with this principle. It only prevents a 
wreck. 

Easiest Way to Impeove 

Inventions of complete novelty and of great 
economic value have attained success going in 
opposition to this principle of conformity to 
the habit of the world. But the easiest way 
is to direct improvements and inventions along 
lines that are the most readily assimilated by 
the minds of the beings to be considered, and 
this may be said to be one of the master-keys 
to economic success. 

The work of building the first model of a 
new machine may be under the direct super- 
vision of the inventor, and if only one machine 
is to be made, the inventor can follow it 
wherever it is used. By patience and industry 
he may instruct some one in the use of it, but 
in these days there is no chance for a great 
economic success in making just one machine, 
or in fact any machine for which there is not 
a large market. Hence, we will confine our 
attention to machines made in such large 



104 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

quantities that the complete supervision of 
manufacture, sale, and use is beyond the capac- 
ity of one person. 

For all such machinery the design must 
more or less conform to the thought and habits 
of work of all concerned. Some of the most 
direct designs have failed to meet with suc- 
cess just because the inventor did things in 
an unusual way. The unusual way is a blind 
way, and is difficult to find. In some instances 
it amounts to no way at all, for it is never used. 

Avoid Obscure Parts 

If a radical change in design is to be made, 
the new machine should be one that will be 
the most readily understood. Obscure parts 
or unusual means should be avoided. 

If moving parts must be covered, some way 
should be provided .for convenient observa- 
tion. It is the obscure departure that is the 
most troublesome, and it is the obvious thing 
that offers the least resistance to progress. 

There is a chance to progress by obvious 
devices, and such progress is enjoyed by all, 
from the makers to the users. It stimulates 
their weak but wholesome appetite for progress 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 105 

without the economic loss usually entailed 
by new things. 

The real new thing requires thought in its 
construction, its sale, and its use. Whatever 
requires thought delays action. 

If we were required to think out each move 
of foot or hand, or even tongue, the motion 
of these members would be greatly reduced. 
Business is transacted and work is done in the 
most economical way when it is the result of 
experience and habit. 

Thinking, of course, goes on more or less 
according to the kind of work and the kind of 
man, but in many cases it is, after all, only 
''habit" thinking that really goes on without 
much conscious effort. 

The delay in progress of business and work 
which is caused by the need of the real brain- 
work that is required by new things, is one of 
the most important points to grasp and keep 
in mind in making any change in a machine or 
in bringing out something comparatively novel. 

Getting Out of the Rut 

We have said that an inventor's success 
depends on his getting out of the rut of thought 



106 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

and practice. That his endeavor must be to 
make a machine that fits the economic and prac- 
tical needs. That he must remember that his 
invention must be truly great if he can neg- 
lect the fact that others will not get out of 
the rut without a rather severe jolt. In fact, 
he must consider that the success of his work 
depends more on the readiness with which it 
will be understood and used than on its merits 
as an ideal piece of mechanism. 

If the inventor gets his cue from the business 
head of an organization for building machin- 
ery, or from any of the members of the com- 
mercial side of the business, it may be a cue 
that indicates the great need of something 
distinctly novel, something radically different, 
and with more ''talking points" in its favor. 

This is not always the case, but there is 
generally more optiniism among the pushers 
of a business organization than in the actual 
workers or users of the machines. But the 
designer should keep in mind the real needs 
and the real obstacles to success. 

The favorable features in machine design 
are: directness of mechanism for the purpose; 
its simphcity and its efficiency; its adaptabil- 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 107 

ity to the habit of thought and action of makers 
and users. 

The obstacles to its success are any of the 
features it may have that cannot be readily 
comprehended by those who are to build, sell, 
buy, and use these devices. It is of Uttle value 
for real success for a machine to be one that is 
readily understood by a draftsman or manager, 
or that it is one that may be made to perform 
wonders in the hands of a skilled expert. 

The real economic success depends on the 
number of machines that will be used. The 
number of machines that will be used depends 
on the readiness with which the real workers 
take hold and manipulate the machine. 

To get a true conception of the value of a 
machine, it is necessary to look at the showing 
of a business engaged in its manufacture. In 
estimating the value of a machine-building 
business for this purpose it is customary to 
speak of its ''good- will.'' 

The True Value of a Business 

All have recognized that a ''going" business 
has a value that differs from a dead one, the 
same as a live horse is of greater value than a 



108 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

dead one, but it has been a trifle difficult to 
locate this value. The inventory that contains 
no item equivalent to life may not reflect the 
true value. The real value may be greater 
than that which would be indicated by the 
assets. As a matter of fact, the inventory is 
usually made to reach a figure which will tally 
with the earning power. The earning power 
of a machine business is largely due to the vol- 
ume of business on each machine. The orders 
for a given machine may be coming in, respond- 
ing to an aggressive campaign of advertising 
or missionary work. But as helpful as these 
are, they are relatively small compared with the 
effect of a host of workers who know how to 
operate the particular machine and who want 
to do so, as well as the number of men who 
have a half-knowledge and a whole-size desire 
to learn this trade of operating a given machine. 

This extra value is due to the fact that this 
increase in volume of business establishes a 
repetition of thought and work, and this is 
its real foundation of success. 

If a machine is one that is to be operated 
by a human being, it must be built to conform 
not only to habits of mind and body, but also 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 109 

to his mental and physical make-up. The 
man who remarked, while standing in line 
waiting at a box-office, that he would rather 
walk ten miles than stand five, expressed an 
important fact that we should keep in mind 
in designing machines. The human being 
must neither be unduly restricted in his free- 
dom of action nor overtaxed with hard work. 

Physical Condition of Worker 

If the use of the machine induces either an 
adverse mental attitude or physical condition 
of the worker, it will sooner or later be adverse 
to the economic success of the machine. 

We have indicated some of the problems and 
have suggested the well-known method of 
mental control for this purpose. A keen ob- 
server of men and machinery may not require 
as much of the so-called practical experience; 
another may need many years of actual work. 

The practical experience in the various 
departments of machine construction, its sale 
and its use, is undoubtedly almost absolutely 
necessary for the average man in this work. 

Its value is primarily to give an opportu- 
nity to see things in actual operation. The 



no HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

shop affords an opportunity to see how a ma- 
chine stands up to its work, where it is weak, 
and a thousand and one points that can best 
be seen in actual operation. But there is 
still another phase that is comprehended more 
readily by the practical experience, and this 
applies to the various departments of business 
as well as to the works. It is the knowledge 
of the men and their mental make-up and 
attitude. 

A keen observer soon reaHzes that successful 
life in the machinery world will not come easily 
to any one who lacks a good understanding of 
others in the field. 

All Men Are Human Beings 

One of the first things we learn in the works 
or office is that all men are really human beings. 
The second one is that the meanest one is 
only so because of certain physical or mental 
conditions that are the direct result of natural 
law. Usually it is not necessary to drag in 
heredity, for we find ample cause in his environ- 
ment, within our range of vision. 

As a rule, a good understanding of men in- 
sures a wholesome regard for them, while fail- 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 111 

ure to understand the other fellow (or the 
equivalent, the failure of the other fellow to 
understand us) may bring out many things 
that make us feel that he is not one whose 
feelings or interests should be considered. 

To any one that has had experience in the 
shop and a fairly well-rounded business and 
financial experience in this particular field of 
work, the other fellow is invariably a good 
fellow whenever there is a chance for a fairly 
complete understanding. 

If we can accept this statement tentatively, 
and follow it up by a determined purpose to 
actually feel it, then we have obtained some- 
thing by the royal process that would have 
othen\dse required much time and perhaps 
some unpleasant experiences. 

This knowledge is essential to success in 
designing machinery. True, many have been 
successful with a very different attitude, but 
engineers of the future must see to it that as 
many of the phases are as favorable as can be 
made so. 

Regarding the absorption of the knowledge 
of working mechanism in the works, this is 
greatly facilitated by a wholesome relation- 



112 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

ship with the workers, and it is greatly handi- 
capped without it. Therefore, it is one of the 
cardinal points for the machine designer to 
get thoroughly acquainted with other men in 
the work so as to know their likes and dislikes, 
as well as the mechanical needs. 

CONTKOLLING THE MiND 

The mind acquires the clearest observation 
by the scheme already mentioned for creating 
interest, viz., by repeatedly bringing it back 
to the subject whenever it is found wandering. 

The truest view for this purpose is one that 
results from an attempt to discover the most 
natural lines for accomplishing the purpose 
for which the machine is wanted. It should 
not be born of precedent. It should not fol- 
low the Hues of thought of other designers. 

Another very fruitful scheme of working 
is to hunt for obsolete features in existing 
machines, features that were required in other 
days but have no use now. Such things are 
frequently found in machines, and they are 
there just because some designer has followed 
blindly. 

All designers follow more or less. We 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 113 

have shown the great need of following the 
set habits of users, but we should make a dis- 
tinct attempt to get back to nature; that is, 
to see just what is best for the purpose, and to 
get the most direct and natural means. If 
this is too much of a task, just hunt for the 
obsolete features. Above all things, we must 
not try to follow another^s work. We too 
often follow unwittingly and to our misfortune 
even when we try to keep out of the rut. 

Machine designers who have done original 
work will tell us that it is easier to do good 
work by striking out on new lines than it is 
to follow the work of others, or even to tinker 
over some of their own inventions of other 
years. It takes more of a mind to take up the 
work of another and change it than to start 
out in some original scheme. 

The machine builder knows that the success 
of any machine depends on the clear-sightedness 
of his designer and the oneness of purpose of 
all the heads of all the departments devoted 
to the construction, sale, and oversight of the 
running machines in the hands of the users. 
And last but not least, in these days of su- 
premacy of specialization, he knows that 



114 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

success comes only to the largest group of men 
organized for this particular kind of work. 

Cooperation Necessary for Success 

He knows that a given machine must have 
a group of men devoting their best thought 
and energies to bring its greatest success. 

This group may be a separate organization, 
operating as a separate company, or it may 
be a part of a large organization devoted to a 
variety of purposes. But if it is a part of a 
large organization, it must have an absolutely 
independent organization with the free manage- 
ment of business, and it must be unhampered 
in the control of its construction, sale, and 
direction of its use. 

The men engaged in production, in the busi- 
ness, or in the operation should have no other 
work. And as already stated, this group of 
men should be larger than any other group 
devoted to a competing machine. 

Workmen must not be changed from one 
class of work to another, excepting for pro- 
motion, and business men should not be 
expected to know all about two or three ma- 
chines of unlike characteristics. 



NON-TECHNICAL PHASES OF DESIGN 115 

Improvements should be sparingly made. 
Any improvement that requires a change in 
construction or operation may be disastrous 
financially. 

This may all seem extremely pessimistic. 
But it is only seemingly so. Experience shows 
it to be the true view. 

If it is true, then the machine designer should 
know it. A mere knowledge of mechanism 
is insufficient for him. A large business expe- 
rience cannot be purchased, and his success 
should not be contingent on the business 
ability of another. He should know how a 
machine should be designed, and should not 
depend too heavily on the views of the busi- 
ness men who have not a clear knowledge of 
the technical problem. 

Perhaps some of you may feel that there are 
many other problems to be encountered before 
you will meet these which I have set forth. 
But we should remember that the mind holds 
some of such impressions a very long time. It 
holds them below the threshold of conscious 
thought, and under ideal working conditions it 
brings them above it when they are needed. 

If you have caught my meaning you will 



116 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

not be weakened in enthusiasm for new work, 
but you will be protected in a measure against 
some of the reaction due to disappointment. 
There is a great field for earnest workers, and 
it is easy to become one by working on the 
lines set forth. 



PART III 
MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 



T 



VI 

MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 

HE navigator in preparing for a voyage 
carefully examines each of his instru- 
ments. He must know the present error of 
his chronometer and its rate of change, and its 
general rehability as indicated by its past 
record. He must also know errors in his com- 
passes for each point, and he should have the 
fullest information regarding the degree of 
reUabihty of every other means on which his 
success depends; and, last but not least, he 
must accurately determine his starting-point 
or point of departure. 

In taking up the subject before us we will 
do well to follow his example. 

In doing so, our task will be to examine two 
principal elements: one, the means on which 
we depend for interpreting the information 
that is available; and the other, the source 
and character of the information. 

The means may be considered analogous 
to the navigator's instruments, and is no less 



120 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

a thing than the brain or mental machinery; 
and the information is simply the world about 
us as seen in the existing things, such as machin- 
ery, methods, popular notions, textbooks, 
etc., all of which may be classed as environ- 
ments, and may be considered as analogous 
to the charts and other pubHcations of our 
worthy example. 

Like the mariner, we must determine the 
degree of reliability of all these sources of infor- 
mation and our means for interpreting observed 
facts. 

When we have ascertained this we will know 
what allowance to make from the '^observed" 
to get the actual facts. With this knowledge 
we will be able to accurately determine both 
our starting-point and best course. 

The importance of considering our own 
minds will be seen when we realize that every 
new fact taken in must in a measure conform 
to the previous ideas. If some of these old 
ideas are erroneous, the mind must be more or 
less ready to discard them. It is very difficult 
to dislodge deep-seated convictions. Contra- 
dictory ideas are not assimilated. Only one of 
them is actually accepted. Even when to 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 121 

the objective reasoning they seem false, they 
frequently continue to control our actions. 

Since we are loaded with the popular ideas 
which we have absorbed from our environment, 
it will be well for us to begin by critically exam- 
ining our environment and the process by which 
ideas have been taken in. This may enable 
us to put out some of the erroneous views, 
and perhaps more firmly fix the true ideas; 
thereby preparing the mind for a more ready 
acceptance of what otherwise would be barred 
out as contradictory. 

We shall not go deeply into the psychology 
of the subject, as it will not be necessary to 
go contrary to or beyond the well-known 
facts. 

We shall not try to locate the man or refer 
to him as the ego or inner man. We shall 
simply say that we know that we can use our 
brains to think on any subject, and we can use 
our senses to collect information regarding any 
chosen subject. 

Our senses and mental faculties can be 
directed to consider one element in a business, 
and for the moment be unmindful of the many 
other elements. In other words, we can to a 



122 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

certain extent manage our mental processes. 
Just as a horse can be managed, so may we 
manage our brains. A driver may carefully 
control the expenditure of energy and the 
course traveled, or he may throw the reins 
over the dash and allow the horse to go his own 
gait and route. In the same way we may 
manage or mismanage our brains. 

Good Results with Moderate Effort 

A faster pace will not be advocated, for the 
present gait is overstrenuous. We hope, how- 
ever, to point out a way by which good results 
may be obtained with moderate effort. 

If, in the past, the brain has been found want- 
ing, we should not lose confidence in its reli- 
ability until we have seen how it has been 
managed. 

Under some conditions its interpretations 
are absolutely correct; in fact, under all condi- 
tions that would be called fair in testing other 
kinds of mechanism. 

Unfortunately, these conditions have not 
always existed. Opinions regarding impor- 
tant matters have been formed when accurate 
mentation has been impossible. 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 123 

Our mental processes are infallible when the 
problem is simple, and may be correct when 
complex, providing sufficient time is allowed 
for reliable operation. 

Two plus two equals four to every normal 
adult's mind. We agree on such simple sums 
and many more difficult, but we begin to have 
''opinions" when we undertake problems in 
which there are too many elements for us to 
'Hake in" and weigh. 

Although there is a great difference between 
the capacities of the various minds for mathe- 
matical and other problems, each mind has 
its natural limit or capacity. This capacity 
should be known, for the mind cannot be 
trusted beyond this normal working limit. 

When the thinking machine is pushed beyond 
its normal capacity, it is untrustworthy. The 
faulty action would not be of great conse- 
quence, if we would disregard the conclusions 
which it has reached under such conditions. 
But unfortunately we go on cHnging to these 
opinions, "set notions," and "convictions," 
just the same as if the process had been 
infallible. 

These opinions constitute our viewpoint 



124 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

or knowledge, and we govern ourselves accord- 
ingly in the management of our affairs. 

Just as we possess the '^ fixed opinions," 
'^set notions/' etc., regarding the greater 
problems of hfe, so we possess a milhon of set 
notions regarding the best form of machinery 
and best methods of conducting a manufac- 
turing business. 

Many of these notions have been acquired 
without careful thought. They have just been 
absorbed from our experience and environ- 
ment. In some cases we may have assumed 
that some one has previously given the matter 
proper consideration, and that the existing 
conditions are the result of their conclusions. 
As a matter of fact, many of the conditions 
now existing in the machine shop are the result 
of allowing old practices to continue after 
conditions have changed, and this has taken 
place without the attention of any one. 

There is no desire to behttle the opinions of 
others. In fact, we must depend on others 
for most of our opinions. But there are so 
many things that have been apparently left to 
'^ others'' by everybody, that it is well for us 
to do some independent thinking, especially 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 125 

on our own immediate problems. To cast a 
glance at least at some of our notions, just to 
see if they bear proof of having been thought- 
fully produced or unthinkingly allowed to take 
form. 

Unimpoetant Details 

We can neither regulate the complexity of 
our environment nor the number of problems 
which we must settle within a given time. But 
we can improve the conditions very much by 
avoiding overconcentration on unimportant 
details. The brain's best time and energy 
should be reserved for our own immediate 
problems; it should not be hampered by details 
of others. 

The various officers of an industrial organiza- 
tion should know the ins and outs of the 
thinking machine on which they depend for 
guidance. With such knowledge each brain 
will give the greatest results, and without such 
knowledge the best brain may be untrust- 
worthy. 

One of the important characteristics of the 
mind is its tendency to lose sight of every- 
thing except the subject in mind. One danger 



126 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

is dodged by jumping into another which we 
have not seen. Both dangers were plainly in 
sight to any one who had not concentrated on 
one of them. 

In the regular every-day business life, we 
seem to have ample time to consider each 
problem. But in reality our great length of 
time is offset by a greater number of elements 
to consider, and a more profound effect of 
long -continued teaching or molding of our 
environment. 

For years engineers have concentrated ener- 
gies on the steam-engine of the reciprocating 
type. The master-minds have made important 
improvements in the design, and many have 
given up their entire existence to the science 
of analyzing the effects of each variation in 
conditions of working the steam. 

Our textbooks, our teaching, our observation, 
all concentrated our attention on this type. 

For some reason Gustav deLaval, followed 
by C. A. Parsons and Nikola Tesla, broke away 
from this spell, and we have the steam tur- 
bine engine. These individuals are endowed 
with master-minds, but the task of producing 
the turbines was probably no greater than the 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 127 

task of others in improving the reciprocating 
type. 

In one case a great step has been taken. In 
the other, we have an example of men of un- 
doubted abihty laboring hard for entire life- 
times with relatively small gain. 

This example applies to more than the 
inventors' world. It has many parallels in 
the cold business management of a manu- 
factory or one of its departments. Business 
management requires the same kind of reason- 
ing and getting away from the spell of environ- 
ment. But this phase we shall consider later 
under another head. 

The point to be brought out here is the 
effect of the spell of environment in magnify- 
ing the importance of existing views and 
methods, and the deceptive part this trusty 
brain plays in binding us to unnecessarily hard 

work. 

Seeing One Thing at a Time 

The tendency of the mind to see only one 
thing at a time is at once most valuable and 
most menacing. It is valuable because it en- 
ables us to forget all but one subject when we 
wish to concentrate our energies. It is most 



128 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

menacing when this concentration is continued 
too long, to the neglect of other subjects. 

One example of the unreliability of the nor- 
mal mind is its proneness to accept as true 
almost any statement that is repeatedly ut- 
tered. Advertisers know this. We rebel when 
they overwork the method, but nevertheless 
the main fact is true; we are swayed by reit- 
erated statements. 

This peculiarity of the mind to be influ- 
enced by repeatedly uttered thoughts is only 
an example of the many ways in which our 
environment affects our views. 

Our political and social views usually con- 
form to those of our family or section of the 
country and world. We generally accept as 
good and right almost any long-existing con- 
dition of affairs. 

Of course, we may dissent more or less, 
but the normal man does not get very far 
away from the effects of his environment. 

Another characteristic of the mind is its 
inclination to concentrate on some apparently 
self-selected subject of the most trivial nature. 
This concentration may not be consciously 
entered into; it may not appear to be intense, 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 129 

but it partially or wholly inhibits the view of 
other subjects. It usually magnifies the sub- 
ject in mind and makes all others appear very 
small or of little consequence. 

All this may seem very trivial and of Httle 
significance to the man in the works or office, 
but it is not trivial. If the principle is under- 
stood and used it will reduce the effort re- 
quired for a given result. 

All will assent to the importance of the sub- 
ject. Some may agree with the statements, 
but it must be borne in mind that no good 
results will come from simply agreeing. In 
fact, there seems to be good reason for behev- 
ing that the mere mental acceptance of a truth 
does not constitute useful knowledge. The 
mental acceptance undoubtedly precedes the 
full, useful assimilation of the facts, but it 
does not produce a change in the actions until 
it is fully assimilated. The unsuccessful may 
appear to knoiv as much or more than the suc- 
cessful—the difference is, their knowledge is 
not the genuine article. They may say they 
know this or that truth, but their actions 
prove they do not beheve what they say they 
know. 



130 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

In the succeeding pages an effort will be 
made to indicate some of the important points 
to be considered. There will be no attempt to 
tell anything new. The main object is to urge 
action along Unes that are known to all to be 
the best. 

The Spell or Envikonment 

We can get a bird's-eye view of our field by 
imagining a viewpoint of an entire stranger. 

If we, as a stranger, should enter any of our 
representative industrial plants, we should do 
so with a profoundly respectful mental atti- 
tude. We would undoubtedly show a full 
appreciation of the fact that the workshop has 
been a means for betterment of all the con- 
ditions of life. We would know that the print- 
ing-presses, the machinery for agriculture, our 
looms, and, in fact, everything that is a machine, 
or the product of a machine, is the direct 
produce of the workshop; without which there 
would be no printing, no machine-made cloth, 
no machine-formed wood, no mechanical means 
for transportation; in fact, none of the mate- 
rial things that have made the last century a 
record breaker. 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 131 

With such knowledge, our respectful, yea, 
worshipful attitude would seem most fitting. 

It is not for us to say one word to detract 
from the credit due to these makers of machin- 
ery. Even in seeing the results of their labor 
accredited to others, we know that it is so well 
marked with the real builder's name that they 
can continue their work of making history, 
apparently disregarding the fact that the world's 
laurels go to others. 

Our profound admiration for these workers 
would not be lessened by our knowledge that 
they deal with ideals only when they are prac- 
tical; that ''heaven-born inventors" have no 
chance for success if lacking in earthly knowl- 
edge; that the engineer deals in material 
things, and must make things ''go." 

The engineer may have his ideals, but they 
must stand the test of reduction to practice. 
In the works the material and practical tests 
are applied to every ideal. No beautiful 
theory can live without some other character- 
istic than beauty. 

As a stranger we might be interested to know 
the prime motive which estabHshed the busi- 
ness. By inquiry we might find several rea- 



132 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

sons: Man's natural industry — his desire to 
make a machine of some kind, or to build up 
a large business for the glory of it, or from 
some altruistic motives. It is even possible, 
yea, probable, that we would discover the rul- 
ing incentive to be the desire for the so-called 
worldly gain. But whatever might have been 
the motive, we would know that it could not 
succeed without correct economic management. 

The bird's-eye view then would reveal the 
importance of the economic side; that in order 
to carry out any plan based on any of the vari- 
ous incentives, the problem of profit and loss 
must not take second place. 

It would seem childish to make such common- 
place statements if the facts before us were 
not so full of proof that many of the officers, 
foremen, and workmen, as well as owners, 
sometimes forget this important fact. 

It is neither necessary nor desirable that 
every one should take an active part in the 
general management of the business. But 
since various workmen, foremen, and officers 
are the real authorities who decide the charac- 
ter of the equipment of a plant and the general 
methods of work, it is necessary, from the profit- 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 133 

and-loss side of the question, that all should 
know something more about this question than 
is generally known. 

Financial Hazard 

The money invested in a business is secure 
if the management is active on the best lines 
for the time. But the best plan of manage- 
ment cannot be obtained from history. 

The vast store of data of correct practice of 
former times will not serve the purpose. A 
record of the practice of even the last decade 
is inadequate, for rules of the game are con- 
tinually changing. 

The investment in an industrial plant and 
business is not wholly protected by fire-proof 
buildings and ultra-conservative management. 
The security must be protected by conducting 
the business on profitable lines. 

Safeguarding the money tied up in machin- 
ery equipment and buildings is important, but 
should not lessen the consideration of elements 
which have to do with the expense of operating. 

A plant and business is useless when not in 
motion, and when under headway requires 
money. Money must be poured into it steadily 



134 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

to an amount which, every year, generally 
equals the total capital in the business. 

Much time and energy have been consumed 
in careful consideration of the cost of the 
plant, but not enough thought has been given 
to the money tied up in the business in other 
ways. 

Conditions That Affect the Hazard 

The hazard of investment is enhanced be- 
cause the investors are inclined to be over- 
sanguine in starting in or in considering any 
new move. 

Frequently the investors do not understand 
the practical side. The practical men do not 
understand the financial, and even when finan- 
cial and practical men combine, the combina- 
tion of their knowledge is not perfect. There 
are many important elements omitted. 

There is always a feeling that now we have 
arrived at a time when it will pay well to go 
deeply into greatest refinement in shading 
the last mill of the last cent on labor cost of 
this or that piece, by the introduction of some 
marvelous line of machine tools. This is a 
case where Hope triumphs over Experience; 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 135 

for surely the world is not yet finished. There 
are a few changes that must yet be made. 

All the machines have not yet reached the 
last stage of perfection! 

If we stake our faith on this or that as a 
^'sure thing," we may discover some fine 
morning that our ''sure thing" is a back 
number. 

Of course, we know that under some condi- 
tions we can continue to make and sell a thing 
that is a back number many years, providing 
we keep up our organized work for new busi- 
ness. But this period should be used in get- 
ting ready for a change; it should not be 
frittered away in attempting to retain the old. 
Much time is required to get out a new prod- 
uct or to modify the old. 

Perhaps it is the beneficent law of nature 
that people are slow to reject back numbers. 
Surely it has saved many a wreck in the past 
among builders of machinery, although it has 
undoubtedly been rather disastrous for the 
users of the back numbers, and equally bene- 
ficial to any of their competitors who may 
have been nonusers of said back numbers. 

Dangers also lurk in pessimism, whether it 



136 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

relates to the character of product or per- 
manency of the market. 

When we are oversanguine we are incKned to 
forget what we have been taught by experience. 
Experience has taught us that the only per- 
fect machine is the one we do not fully know. 

The ''perfect'' machine may be the one that 
is to be tried next week, or one that has been 
running a few weeks or months or years. The 
optimist thinks it is his own machine, and the 
pessunist that it is the machine built by his 
competitors. 

The kind of forgetfulness that produces 
the optimist is preferable to that which pro- 
duces the pessimist, but neither produces the 
true view. 

If m the past we have found it desu-able to 
make changes in product or in our method of 
manufacture, it i^ probable that we will have a 
reason for doing so again. 

The ''perfect" machine will be found want- 
ing in some respects, and alterations will be 
necessary; therefore, the business will be more 
secure if all moves are made with this fact in 
mind. 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 137 

Value of Specialization 

We find two extreme types of men in the 
optimist and pessimist. Either one is better 
than the man who vacillates between these 
extremes. 

Over confidence in one's own product is 
not wholly bad, and, if it induces an adher- 
ence to that one thing to the exclusion of other 
schemes, it may bring good results even if 
the scheme is more or less faulty. A faultily 
designed machine, well made, may be better 
than a poorly made machine of good design. 
It takes practice to produce good work, and 
the sticking to it gives the practice. 

In the pessimist we have one who is ever 
ready to lose faith as soon as he discovers 
faults. 

The wavering faith in any one machine 
generally results in the addition of one after 
another and the retention of all. This proceed- 
ing dissipates the attention, and no one machine 
receives the development that comes from undi- 
vided attention. 

But whether the lack of constancy tends 
toward a variety of types or an unnecessary 



138 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

increase in number of sizes of a given machine, 
it is invariably excused by the assertion that 
there is not enough business in a lesser num- 
ber. This statement is frequently made, when 
it is common knowledge that there are from 
six to fifty makers who are making the same 
range. 

This tendency to increase the number of 
machines manufactured is sometimes due to 
the readiness with which the average man 
accepts a new machine as better than the old. 
He knows the faults of the old, and he does 
not know all the faults of the new. 

Money invested in a machinery building 
plant is not very safe if there is a tendency 
to squander the energies over too many 
problems. 

The manufacture of a great variety of 
machines in response to a demand by the 
selling organization is a relic of other days. 
Our notions about methods for selling must 
be changed over to fit the modern scheme. 
And they must be kept up to date. 

There are some very successful large com- 
panies which turn out a large variety of prod- 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 139 

uct, but even the large companies are trying 
to reduce their Hne of machinery, and to 
^^speciahze.'^ Their success will depend on 
whether they lead or follow in efficient special- 
ization. 

The survival of the fittest will eliminate all, 
excepting specialists or groups of specialists. 

The largest plants may continue, by concen- 
trating a battery of specialists on both the 
business and mechanical side of each subject, 
the necessary degree of subdivision. This 
depends on the competition, for the combined 
force on one given machine must be the largest 
in order to be the most efficient. 

The great variety or full line of machines 
seems to be a necessity from the mercantile 
point of view, but it is a woeful handicap to 
progress and profit to the manufacturing 
plant. The market conditions must be met, 
but it is best to know the disastrous effect of 
making just one more size or another line. 

The entire cost of conducting a machine- 
building business can usually be lowered by 
simply continuing along with the same men. 
This applies to the entire organization, from 
the workmen to the salesmen. 



140 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

Careful changes should be made from time 
to time, to keep up a wholesome spirit of 
progress. 

Men should be advanced from position to 
position as the opportunities afford and their 
endowments allow. Others unfortunately must 
be dropped from the organization; but both 
the advancements and the weeding out must 
be carefully considered. 

Ambition Mania 

Advancements cannot be made to meet the 
requirements of this age of overstimulated 
ambition. We preach that every boy born 
in this country may stand an equal chance 
for every position from the Presidency down. 
Young men are told to study and qualify for 
great things. This is good kind of preach- 
ing — it is the kind that should be heeded, — 
but in some instances it is taken into the mind 
as meaning that every one is endowed with 
the abiHty to fill this or that great position. 
Then the ambition becomes the predominat- 
ing idea, and the work of preparation is sec- 
ondary. Then the individual fails to measure 
up his own quahfications. Then he becomes 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 141 

obsessed with an idea of his fitness for things 
greater than nature ever intended. Thus he 
gets beyond a condition of usefulness to an 
organization, and must be dropped out with 
the disgruntled. It is one of the tragedies 
of hfe that we should try to prevent, but 
should never disregard. 

Ambition should exist, but it should not be 
the sole qualification for promotion. 

The management's chief business should 
be to take men as they are found on earth; 
mold them as much as possible, and place 
each one where he will accompHsh the best 
results for both the organization and the 
individual. 

Barring the disgruntled, the uncongenial, 
and the habitually inattentive, almost all men 
may be and should be profitably employed, 
the prime requisite being reasonably close 
attention to business. The thoughts must 
not habitually wander away from the work. 

Intrigue disappears when the management 
quits looking for it, and assures everybody, by 
the general method of conducting the business, 
that there will be no chance to oust this or 



142 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

that man. That each man will be retained in 
his place if he will but give reasonable applica- 
tion to the general interest of the organization 
and the particular work of his office. 

The management does not ''manage" if it 
perpetually changes its men. It should bol- 
ster up the man who lacks self-confidence; it 
should puncture false ambitions, and it should 
use men as they are found in the organization. 
It should not be inclined to ''go back on" a 
man who has blundered or who has been found 
lacking in understanding. 

It should not be over-ready to embrace a 
stranger just because his faults are not known. 

The financial hazard of a business enter- 
prise is greatly minimized by using men as 
they are found, and properly placing them at 
work or in offices for which they are quahfied. 

Lack of Confidence in Product 
What has been said regarding the optimist, 
the pessimist, and the vacillating man, from 
the designing and manufacturing point of 
view of a machine business, appHes with equal 
force to the business organization. 
The business is pushed forward by men who 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 143 

have confidence in the project and in the prod- 
uct. If these men lose their faith in their 
own business, they not only lose their useful- 
ness as pushers and managers, but they be- 
come drags on the industry, and remain so 
until restored to normality. The hazard of 
investment is greatly increased by such con- 
ditions. 

Instances without number have been ob- 
served in which men who have been success- 
ful have become unsuccessful through loss of 
confidence due to acquiring the ''dangerous 
half-knowledge.'' 

The man who has acquired the dangerous 
half-knowledge should take a postgraduate 
course in some institution where men are 
treated by all the most powerful agencies 
known to science. There may be no institu- 
tions of this kind in existence, but the great 
need will doubtless bring the estabhshment of 
many.. 

The men who have lost faith in their own 
machinery should be told that no company 
can survive the effects of weak-kneed advo- 
cates. Any company is better for a certain 
amount of aggressive competition. Any com- 



144 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

pany can stand more or less opposition from 
Its friends the enemy, but no company can 
contmue to exist under the bhghting effects 
of the men who have lost this confidence in 
them or their product. 

The postgraduate course for restoration of 
the near^wise man should include educational 
means of all kinds. The means should be 
especially adapted to the need of each student 
or patient. 

There might be a phonograph in each room, 
which should work all night and all day. This 
machine should repeat over and over a few 
short sentences like the following: 

''The only perfect machine is the one you 
do not know.'' 

''Study the machines offered by your com- 
petitors, just to get the same degree^of knowl- 
edge of the ^other' machines — not for the 
purpose of slandering or even mentioning — 
but just to restore your confidence in the 
relative value of your own machine.'' 

"Don't try to get back your belief that 
your own machine is perfect — that has gone 
forever — only look at the other machines 
and learn that your own is the best." 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 145 

This kind of confidence will not be exuberant, 
but it will have marked efl&ciency in the cold 
gray world in which you are to again try your 
strength. 

Confidence in Existing Things 

The new confidence acquired by this treat- 
ment is born of a knowledge of the superior- 
ity of existing things — things that may not 
be perfect but are nevertheless best. 

This treatment will forcibly impress on the 
mind that every machine requires a complete 
organization, which combines and includes 
the inventor, the business managers, the manu- 
facturing ofiicers, and last, but not least, the 
men who do things, the workers in every depart- 
ment. And this extends to every detail of the 
work necessary for the construction, shipment, 
and operation of the product. 

The inventor may have had almost complete 
knowledge regarding the best way to make 
each part, just how each fit should be made, 
and just how the machine should be operated 
under each combination of conditions. But 
it is far more probable that the inventor never 
had all this wonderful knowledge. 



146 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

If he knew all this, it would be of value pro- 
viding he had some perfect way of impart- 
ing his knowledge to each individual worker. 
We know, however, that this is impossible, 
even with the most thoroughly organized 
companies. 

It takes years to get each piece made as it 
should be made, even with no change of de- 
sign, and this is not accomphshed by any 
other process than continuous practice, which 
is only acquired by actually making these 
pieces. The quality and speed of production 
increases with this experience, and are not 
acquired without it. 

The art of assembling and operation of the 
machine is developed in the same way. There 
are other means that facihtate, but nothing 
that takes the place of practice. 

The knowledge of the machine must not be 
only in the inventor's head. It is not even 
enough to have it thoroughly known by all 
the officers, including foremen. It must be 
patiently transmitted to the real workers. 

A wonderful invention is only of material 
value when it has been in active use long enough 
for many men to have acquired knowledge 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 147 

regarding it and skill in production of its vari- 
ous parts, assembling and operating. 

It may have a prospective value, and that 
may be something salable, but the point to 
be made clear is, that real material value of an 
invention is not realized till it is used. To 
have it used requires more than the inventor^s 
vision, and more than the drawings and speci- 
fications. The invention must be given form 
and use. 

A machine is a combination of the original 
idea with many subsequent ideas which have 
been added to it by continuous application. 
These subsequent ideas are supphed by the men 
who do things, who make and use the machine. 
These ideas do not show in the general de- 
sign, but they are there in fact. They 
represent ideas as to proper fit of this or 
that part, of the advantage of easing this or 
that bearing at this or that place. They 
represent the accumulation of the ideas regard- 
ing proper tension for each adjustment, and 
thousands of other points that may or may not 
have been anticipated by the inventor, points 
that probably could never have been known 
by any other process than that worked out by 



148 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

actual thought combined with experience in the 
construction and use of the invention. 

The Workeks Help Bring Success 

The inventor, the officers, and mayhap the 
foreman, taken all together, do not and can- 
not make a successful machine or business 
without this supplemental work or ideas that 
come from actual work of all workers. 

This new kind of knowledge should not take 
away a man's courage; on the contrary, it 
should give him a true sense of value of exist- 
ing, ^^going'' things. With this knowledge 
he can confidently and earnestly push a machine 
that is the product of a good organization. He 
will know the great value of much experience 
and practise of each of the many men in the 
organization. He will neither kill the busi- 
ness by half-hearted indorsement, nor increase 
the hazard of investment by urging this or that 
modification. Nor will he advocate this or 
that machine being added to a line that is 
already too great. 

The invention, the general organization, the 
proper direction of the business, are essential 
to success. But without that organization 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 149 

which is only obtained by actual, thoughtful 
experience of the men who do things, all the 
knowledge and industry of the leaders are 
utterly useless. 

This knowledge produces a new kind of con- 
fidence that has greater faith in the existing 
and running things than in the claims for some- 
thing that has not had the development of 
practice. It is the confidence that knows 
that the right fundamental ideas and the 
policy of ^^ sticking to one thing" will accom- 
plish the best results. 

This is not a doctrine of optimism that 
holds there is no inferior machine. The '^best" 
implies the existence of the inferior. In nearly 
all lines there are many grades from the best 
to the worst, but the loss of faith in the rela- 
tive value of a machine is most commonly 
due to a lack of full knowledge of the other 
types, and it is this kind of loss of courage, 
confidence, or whatever it may be, that this 
chapter is intended to offset. 

Progress with Full Knowledge of Facts 

New schemes or new inventions may be full 
of promise^ but cannot be realized without the 



150 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

various elements which include the man and 
his persistent industry in organizing as well as 
inventing — in manufacturing and selling as 
well as promoting. 

Belief in the superiority of existing things 
is not a barrier to real progress. It is not a 
submission to the spell of environment. It is 
simply an appreciation of an important fact. 
Progress should be made subject to this fore- 
knowledge. 

The spell of environment that should be 
exorcised away is not the spirit of progress — 
it is the group of fundamentally erroneous 
ideas regarding values of various methods of 
manufacture, general conduct of business, and 
principles of machine design. 

Here are a few of the errors: 

'' Anything new' must be good." 

"Tinker & Change Machine Tool Company 
are bringing out a new model. It's a wonder 
worker.'' [Said company seldom make two 
lots alike.] 

"Experience in manufacture and use of a 
new machine is of value, but not essential to 
its success." 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 151 

"The talk of profit of a business should be 
in whispers. It is against the welfare of the 
workers.'' [As if good wages or salaries could 
be paid by an unprofitable enterprise.] 

"The idea that specialization of the pro- 
cesses for producing machines is harmful to 
the machinist trade because it tends to simplify 
and make less difficult the production of cer- 
tain kinds of work." [As if it were to the 
advantage of the machinist to be forced to 
work with poor implements, when in other 
plants, cities, and countries good tools are 
being furnished to each man — tools which 
enable each man to do the best work of which he 
is capable in the most favorable circumstances 
— methods of specialization which take the 
ordinary work away from the extra good work- 
man and supply him with high-class work 
only, making his return the greatest, and mak- 
ing it possible to pay him good wages. As if 
it were possible to pay good wages when good 
men are required to do medium work, and all 
men on account of inferior tools are handicapped 
in their production. As if these questions of 
profit were not of vital interest to every worker 
and officer, as well as owners.] 



152 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

The group of persisting erroneous ideas 
regarding machine design is so large and so 
strong that a summary would fail to serve 
any good purpose. Therefore, no attempt will 
be made here to even outline these ideas. It 
is hoped that each reader will make an effort to 
get back to nature in surveying the field. 

Largest Profit per Dollar Invested 

One of the most satisfactory policies of man- 
agement is that which tends toward getting the 
best return or profit per dollar of investment. 

We shall not refer to the quality of the pro- 
duct, the design, or any other elements which 
affect the good name and standing of the 
business, for it goes without saying that no 
business can be maintained where these are 
disregarded. The point to be brought out here 
is that, these things being equal, the best 
scheme of management for profit is one that 
puts the capital where it will do the most 
good. 

The above statement is one with which all 
will agree, but strangely enough there has been 
a tendency to tie up capital in ways that actu- 
ally throttle the output of the entire business. 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 153 

Furthermore, this is frequently done by in- 
creasing the portion of the investment that is 
irrevocably tied to the existing product, thus 
not only reducing the earning power of each 
dollar invested, but also increasing the hazard 
by tying the capital to the present product, 
which soon may be unsuited to the market 
demand. 

One of the most common errors in this 
respect is the one that regards the reduc- 
tion of the labor cost as the paramount con- 
sideration. 

Reduction in labor cost has been the war- 
cry. The pay-roll has been talked about so 
much that it has seemed to become the whole 
thing. A man who declares that the labor 
cost per piece is not the most important ele- 
ment is at once branded as an advocate of 
old-fashioned methods. 

It is needless to give assurance that there is 
no intention to disregard the labor cost The 
net cost per piece is a very important element, 
but it should neither eclipse the question of 
profit per dollar invested, nor the risk of the 
capital tied up. 

What is the gain if the means for reduction 



154 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

of the net labor cost reduces the profit more 
than the saving in labor? If doing so results 
in an actual loss of profit, why is it done? 

We can readily see that the overhopeful 
managers may disregard the risk of the money 
invested, but we cannot see why the relative 
importance, or rather unimportance, of the 
labor cost should be so disregarded. 

The machine tools in a plant usually deter- 
mine its character. This character is not 
one that can be quickly changed, but every 
addition to the equipment does change it for 
better or worse. Usually the installation of a 
new machine is hailed as a progressive move, 
just because the new machine works better 
than the old, but its effect may be very bad. 
It may be changing the character of the plant 
adversely to the interests of all concerned. 
Therefore, the controlling spirit should see 
to it that each move is made on a basis that is 
economically sound. 

It is in these changes that the scheme of 
management has a chance to make a great 
difference in the earning power of the entire 
business. 

If too large a proportion of the total avail- 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 155 

able capital is tied up in the machine equip- 
ment, the business is handicapped. There is 
a right amount which bears a certain relation 
to the total required to carry on the enterprise. 
With a given amount of capital for machine 
equipment, the output of the plant will be 
seriously throttled if the net cost of labor per 
piece machined is allowed to become the con- 
trolling element. 

Cost of the Pkoduct 

The practice of disregarding the profit, 
when considering changes in machine equip- 
ment, is the natural outgrowth of the sepa- 
ration of the mechanical and the business 
departments. 

The changes in the equipment are usually 
determined by the mechanical department, 
and this is done with particular regard for the 
quality of work and the cost per piece. The 
relation between the profit and the net labor 
cost is not considered. 

The cost of the product of the average 
machinery-building plant may be divided 
into three nearly equal parts: the material, 
the labor, and the burden; or, in four equal 



156 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

parts, if a reasonable interest charge is made 
for the use of the capital invested. 

The material is the iron, steel, and other 
material that enters into the construction of 
the machine, and it is taken in the condition 
in which it usually comes to the machine shop. 

The burden includes all expenses and sal- 
aries necessary for the maintenance of the 
business. 

About one-half the amount paid for labor 
goes to the mon who run the machine tools, 
and the other half is paid to workmen who 
do the other work, such as handwork, assem- 
bling, transporting, etc. Therefore, the cost 
of machining is either one-sixth or one-eighth 
of the total cost. 

On top of the net cost of the product there 
should be a profit. If it is not there, the sooner 
something happens the better. If it is there, 
then it is proportioned to the volume of the 
output. Therefore, both the size of the out- 
put and the labor cost should be kept in mind. 

The size of the profit per unit of output is 
not generally known to the mechanical depart- 
ments. But even if it is not known, there is 
no reason for their being uninformed as to the 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 157 

importance of large output for cost of the 
plant. 

Tying up Capital in Stock in Process of 
Construction 

The amount of capital tied up in raw mate- 
rial, supplies, stock in process, and finished 
product should not be greater than that which 
is necessary to get the greatest output per 
dollar of investment. 

In the machinery-building world there is 
no such thing as a steady, long-lived demand 
for any machine. Hence the proposition to 
build a locomotive or an automobile or print- 
ing-press by methods employed in watch or 
sewing-machine manufacture is entirely ill- 
timed at least. 

For this reason the stock in process must 
not necessarily be considered insufficient if it 
appears to be on the hand-to-mouth plan. The 
dividing line between excessive and insufficient 
stock must be drawn in each individual case. 

Raw material should be purchased in reason- 
able quantities, with due regard to the price 
which varies with quantities, but there should 
always be a regard for the amount of capital 



158 HUMAN FACTOR IN WORKS MANAGEMENT 

used for this purpose. Any excess represents 
just that much extra capital unnecessarily 
risked in the business. 

There should be a constant supply of mate- 
rial throughout the entire work. The stock 
in process should flow through the plant in a 
rapid but thin stream. The quantity should 
be no greater than absolutely necessary to 
insure a steady supply for all of the workers, 
including the assembling and selling workers. 
An excessive stock of this or that piece, or 
of all pieces, means that much capital idle, 
and it also tends to slackness of management. 
Frequently it is the outcome of carelessness. 

A plant will run almost without manage- 
ment if given latitude in the amount of stock 
carried in raw material, in work in process, 
and in finished product. No great care need 
be taken in purchase of material or in putting 
in the shop orders. All that is needed is to 
just hurry forward the stock that ''happens'' 
to be ''out," and at the same time allow the 
accumulation of the unneeded stock to go on 
unchecked. 

And it is no uncommon sight to see this all 
going on under the same management. 



MACHINE BUILDING FOR PROFIT 159 

Immense storerooms for keeping finished 
stock are shown with pride, unmindful of 
the fact that every dollar's worth of unneces- 
sary stock on the shelves in the stock-room, 
every dollar's vs^orth of unnecessary work in 
the plant, represents idle money and faulty 
management. 

If this money is to be retained in the busi- 
ness, the system should be changed so that 
the money will be put where it will bring the 
best return. 

The excessive stock in process is sometimes 
an outcome of blind progressiveness — the 
blindness that fails to see that there is as 
much money tied up in stock in process and 
in finished product as there is in the entire 
machinery equipment. 

An adaptable equipment facilitates keeping 
down the amount tied up in stock in process. 
The modern plant should take advantage of 
these modern methods and machines which 
tend toward profitable use of capital. Such 
machines are highly developed and true to 
the controlling ideal of adaptability and largest 
output per dollar of investment. 



JUL 23 1912 



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